Barcelona mulling over an ‘innovative’ strategy to address kit manufacturing issue amid Nike dispute | OneFootball

Barcelona’s shirt sponsorship and their unpleasant situation with Nike have caused great many debates within the world of football lately.

It is apparent that the club are not happy with the terms and the services provided by Nike, their partner since 1998. In fact, the decade-old relationship between the two entities could soon be on the verge of collapse.

Barcelona serious about breaking Nike contract

According to a fresh report from Diario SPORT, Barcelona are serious about their intention to terminate the contract with Nike.

This comes shortly after a failed meeting between Barcelona representatives, led by Joan Laporta and Rafa Yuste and the Nike officials.

Although the motive of the meeting was to douse the tension between the two parties, the conversation did not exactly go as planned.

Laporta had met Nike officials this week (Photo by PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images)

Barça open to its own shirt project

The biggest takeaway from the Diario SPORT report, though, is the fact that Barcelona are ready to provide a transition stage between the Nike deal and the next deal from a multinational, by starting its own chain of shirts.

Although the plan is still in the nascent stages, the Catalans believe starting its own chain could bring them greater revenue than they currently receive from Nike.

The innovative own-brand approach will not only act as a transition between Nike at the end of the season and the arrival of a new company such as Puma but will also be flexible to long-term future plans.

However, as mentioned earlier, the plan is still in the nascent stages and the Barcelona board must hold talks with several apparel companies before they can even kickstart the plans to come up with their own kits.

Meanwhile, the talks with Puma have not transformed into anything substantial as of yet, so it won’t come as a surprise to see this sponsorship saga drag on for a bit longer.