Nike is in talks with Lega Calcio, the Italian football league, to be the official supplier of the match ball for a series of domestic competitions, including first and second division matches and the Italian Cup. Nike reportedly entered direct talks with the league after the latter failed to sell the sponsorship deal through a tender, which closed March 16 without any candidates coming forward. In the tender, the league was proposing a 5-year contract, running from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2012, under which the winner of the bid would have paid a minimum of €6 million per season and provided annually 15,000 balls each year.