Adidas' only major football property in Italy was the AC Milan team, but the Big a and the Swoosh will each sponsor two important Italian football teams over the next few years. Without commenting on its financial arrangements, Adidas confirms that it will replace Nike as the new technical sponsor of Juventus, the well-known sports club in Turin, when its current contract with Nike expires.
For six years starting with the 2015/16 season, the Big a will associate its brand name with the club for a reported minimum guaranteed fee of €139.5 million - or €23.2 million a year - not including performance bonuses and minimum annual royalties of €6 million for licensed products. It will apparently be Adidas' highest investment in any single club.
According to reports in the Italian press, Nike is currently paying between €15 million and €16 million a year for the rights to the Juventus football team, which has not been at the top of its form lately. The Swoosh recently signed up the AS Roma football club for ten years starting in 2014/15 for an undisclosed amount, said to be higher than €10 million a year. The Roman team, which has won many matches lately, was previously sponsored by Kappa. In the interim, the club's players are wearing shirts supplied by Asics, without carrying the brand's name or logo.
Meanwhile, Adidas has extended its contract with the famous AC Milan football club for ten more years through the 2023/24 season. They have been partners for 16 years, and the club is said to have earned more trophies than any other European football team except for Real Madrid, which is also sponsored by Adidas.
According to reports, the new deal raises Adidas' annual sponsorship fee for AC Milan to about €18 million, or €4 million more than the present contract. Aside from its new big investment in Juventus, the amount was said to be, for Adidas, second only to the annual fee of €20 million that it gives to its partly owned Bayern München club.
The amount pledged by Adidas to AC Milan is similar to what Nike has agreed to pay to the Inter club, also in Milan, under their newest contract, signed in August to last until June 2024. It takes the place of a deal that was due to expire in 2016, under which Inter was reportedly getting only €14.5 million a year from Nike. Apparently, all these amounts don't include performance bonuses.
