Several Spanish football clubs were scrambling to secure apparel for their teams after LN Plus Iberoamericas, the Spanish licensing and distribution partner of Li Ning, was declared bankrupt. The company had invested heavily in sports marketing, including sponsorship deals with prominent football teams, from Real Zaragoza to UD Las Palmas, Celta Vigo and Recreativo de Huelva, and several basketball teams.

The failure is a tough blow for the Chinese brand, which strongly targeted Spain as part of its European expansion and might have to rethink its international strategy. Li Ning moved into the Spanish market in 2001 and built up such assets in the market that it even became the official sportswear supplier of the Spanish Olympic team at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Only a few months ago, LN Plus Iberoamericas struck a deal with an established distributor, Jorcani Sports, to take over the distribution of Li Ning in the retail trade in Spain, Portugal and Andorra, but Jorcani said it exited the deal once the financial issues of LN Plus came to light. Jorcani, which distributes brands from Odlo to Fischer, Carrera and Icepeak, is therefore not affected by the bankruptcy of the licensee in any way.

Spain is one of the countries that were not covered by the deal struck in 2011 with the L-Fashion group in Finland for the distribution of the Li Ning brand in many European countries. The agreement covers exclusive distribution in the German-speaking countries, the Netherlands, France, Slovenia, Croatia, Russia and Finland; and non-exclusive distribution in some other countries.

L-Fashion reported robust sell-out of Li Ning apparel last year, so that it entirely ran out of its admittedly small stock of Li Ning garments made for the European market. Sales of footwear were tougher, which has encouraged the Finnish company to come up with a licensed European range from 2013. Five people were recruited to deal with the range, issued from companies such as Adidas and Amer Sports.

The L-Fashion group's commitment to Li Ning was given a boost when Li Ning himself traveled to Finland to spend time with L-Fashion executives.