The Nike shirt deal expires in 2013-4 and Adidas’s interest is set at least to double the £13 million a year Arsenal earn from it. Arsenal fans buy 800,000 shirts every year, making them the third-biggest draw in Nike’s portfolio after Manchester United and Barcelona.
Adidas dropped Liverpool last season after growing frustrated with the club’s demands over an extension and are keen to find a new partner of similar stature.
Now, the Telegraph understands adidas is hoping to renew an association with Arsenal that ended in the mid-1990s after taking the strategic decision to “own” London.
Indeed, Arsenal are not alone in coming under Adidas’s gaze and the German manufacturer is also believed to be set to conclude a deal with Fulham. Their deal with Kappa expires at the end of the season and adidas are poised to take over.
Currently Chelsea’s deal with Fulham and Arsenal are set indirectly to benefit from the Terry scandal. Although adidas is committed to its arrangement with the European champions it has been caught up in the public-relations fallout surrounding Terry and Ashley Cole.
Broadening its association with other big London clubs will assist in deflecting from a particular affinity with Chelsea’s brand.
The value of Arsenal’s kit-supply deal has lost ground on their rivals after locking in 2005 prices eight years ago in a search for guaranteed future cash to convince banks they could cover the interest on their £400 million stadium-project loans.
Manchester United are hoping for a “major increase” from Nike even on their £23.5 million-a-year deal, which also benefits from an additional profit-sharing agreement, giving clues to Arsenal’s worth to a new supplier. Adidas’s deal with Real Madrid, its biggest-selling client, is said to have been struck at 40 million euro a year, although no official figures have been revealed.