Italy Bag New Shirt Sponsor, End Two-Decade Partnership with Puma

Italy will don a new technical sponsor from 2023, bidding goodbye to a 20-year shirt partnership with Puma. The two-decade long relationship with the German brand will end by December 2022, as confirmed by the Italian Football Federation, FIGC.

However, the European champions will still be sponsored for the 2022 FIFA World Cup by Puma, if they qualify their two play-off matches against North Macedonia and Portugal/Turkey.

It will be Adidas producing kits for all of Italy’s team from 2023 – from the senior team all the way to plethora of youth teams in the nation’s ranks. In fact, even the women’s and eSports teams will be sponsored by Adidas.

Speaking of which, FIGC president Gabriel Gravina took pleasure in announcing the partnership.

He said: “The announcement of the partnership with adidas is a source of pride for the FIGC. This collaboration represents a fundamental step in the growth path of our commercial appeal and strengthens the development process of our brand both in Italy and abroad.” (via FCInter1908)

Puma was billed around €19m net per year, but the new deal with the other German sportswear giant will rake in nearly double of that figure, as claimed earlier by La Repubblica, although no official details regarding the exact sponsorship fees has been revealed. Reports indicate that it might be worth anywhere between €25-35m for the duration of the deal per year.

CEO Kasper Rorsted refused to comment on the exact figures that Adidas will part ways with for the sponsorship deal.

“We are incredibly proud to announce this long-term partnership with the Italian Football Federation. We are thrilled that one of the most successful national teams joins our portfolio of international federations, alongside other giants such as the DFB (Germany), the RFEF (Spain), the AFA (Argentina) and the RBFA (Belgium) and we can’t wait to reach great goals together,” said the executive.

Italy have been sponsored for four years before by Adidas, between 1974 and 1978, when greats such as Dino Zoff, Gianni Rivera and Sandro Mazzola donned the Azzurri jersey.

Astonishingly, Adidas were the first technical sponsors of the national team as the previous jerseys were all without any ‘partners’ as such. The nation will now witness the three stripes take over the national team jerseys for the next few years, beginning from 2023.