NEW CELTIC ADIDAS DEAL: 30 MILLION OVER 10 YEARS SEEMS SMALL, BECAUSE IT’S A MADE-UP NUMBER
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- May 2
- 3 min read
It’s funny how quickly the narrative can shift on a story concerning Celtic, based on who is writing it and who their intended audience are.
I’ve noticed this phenomenon particularly over the last 24 hours, with regards Celtic’s new kit sponsorship deal with Adidas.
New Celtic Adidas Deal is the Biggest in Scottish History: That’s a Lot More than 30 Million
The duration of “10 years” was thrown around as was the sum of 30 million pounds. This sounds like a phenomenal amount of money, especially for a team like Celtic.
The reality is, for all we have a massive global fanbase, we don’t have the market penetration of teams who play in one of Europe’s big 5 leagues, owing to the fact our domestic league is perhaps one of the most poorly promoted in world football.
Then a few dissenting voices emerged. I’ve noticed quite a few comments across fan media over the past day or so saying things like “wait a minute, 30 million over ten years?
The last deal was supposedly worth 5 million per year, we’ve been short-changed here.”
Indeed, that would seem to be the case, if you took all the media tittle-tattle at face value.
However, as with any story, once you filter out the background noise, and the agendas of those pushing particular narratives, things make a bit more sense.
Let’s begin by looking at the only source that actually matters in this case: the joint statement from Celtic and Adidas themselves.
Celtic Chief Executive Michael Nicholson said: “This is a hugely significant announcement for Celtic, the biggest official kit supplier partnership in the club’s history and one we are sure will delight our supporters worldwide allowing us to look to the future together with confidence.”
So, beyond saying “the biggest deal in our history,” and by default the biggest in Scottish football history, no monetary figure is actually mentioned.
For their part, Adidas had this to say: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with this iconic and legendary football club, with such a passionate and dedicated global community of supporters.
“The club has seen great success on and off the pitch across all teams over the last four years, and we look forward to the next stage in our partnership.”
Again, no money, and no fixed term is mentioned. However, the official statement does describe the new deal as a “long-term agreement”.
This would point to it being significantly longer than the previous 4-year deal.
Now, from my own sources, people whom I trust, the 10-year figure is accurate.
The 30 million figure isn’t.
The figure of 30 million emanated from The S*n and then later the Daily Record. It was also carried by Sky Sports, but they are notorious for their laziness when it comes to covering Scottish football. So, they probably just lifted it from one of the tabloids and ran it without checking.
The exact quote given in The S*n’s original report was “a figure well in excess of 30 million.”
That could mean 31 million, it could mean 55 million, we simply don’t know.
And most importantly, neither do they. They’ve just plucked a number they think sounded big enough out of thin air and ran with it.
Also, Celtic and Adidas are unlikely to ever disclose that amount officially. What we do know however is that Adidas generated 29 million pounds in sales from Celtic kits last year alone.
So, if Celtic were seeing even a quarter of that, over ten years, it goes well above the 30 million mark. We could be looking at double that in all honesty. However, that is speculation on my part.
Disclaimer: I failed my maths higher, so I’m not exactly a reliable source when it comes to numbers!
However, I think it’s safe to say Celtic have done very well out of this deal and will continue to do so over the next decade.
The moral of the story is, trust the official sources, and always treat the tabloids with suspicion. They never have and never will have Celtic’s best interests at heart.
And of course, don’t buy the S*n
