Man Utd seal £750m Adidas tie-up

Manchester United have signed a record shirt deal after landing a £750m tie-up with German sportswear group Adidas.

The deal guarantees the English club at least £75m a year for the next 10 years - more than treble the £23.5m Nike had paid for the team's current deal.

The US company had pulled out of negotiations claiming that the club's demands "did not represent good value for Nike's shareholders".

The deal is worth more than double the £31m, eight-year deal under which Adidas makes and sells Real Madrid's shirts and comes after Man Utd endured their worst season in decades.

The Premiership club failed to qualify for the Champions League and finished seventh in the division, which led to David Moyes, the manager, being sacked before the end of the season.

The agreement gives Adidas the exclusive right to distribute Adidas and Man Utd dual branded products around the world and sees the club join some of the world's top teams in Adidas's sponsorship stable including Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Chelsea.

Herbert Hainer, Adidas chief executive, said the deal would give the group sales of £1.5bn over the next decade.

For Manchester Utd, it is the latest in a hat-trick of record-breaking shirt tie-ups that will see it earn $240m per season until 2022 just from shirt sponsorship.

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The bumper deal will go some way to mending the £40m hole left by the club's failure to qualify for the Champions League.

Adidas had already seen a boost from the World Cup, announcing last month that the Brazilian jamboree meant it would definitely match its target of €2m in football sales this year.

Yet the company has struggled in the US as well as with the strong euro. Shareholders suffered a 34 per cent drop in net income in the first three months of 2014 compared with the previous year, sparking criticism from some over Adidas's ability to compete with arch-rival Nike.

Adidas is still targeting €17bn in annual sales by the end of next year.

Adidas was keen to secure sponsorship of Man Utd given its strong footprint in Asia, where the German sportswear company has a sophisticated network of franchise stores.

Shares in Man Utd hit a 12-month high after the deal was confirmed, rising 2.9 per cent to $18.30 in New York.

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