Post by Ben Kohler

Adidas just lost the Champions League after 25 years, simply because Nike was willing to pay double. The brand with the three stripes has supplied the Champions League match ball since 2001. There’s been twenty-five years of the iconic ‘starball’ design that became synonymous with European football's elite competition. But this week, Nike won the contract starting 2027. The deal is expected to roughly double in value to more than €40mn per year across UEFA's top three competitions. In short, a quarter century-long partnership ended because the market value shifted and someone else was willing to pay more. This is part of a series of changes we’ve seen to the Champions League recently - UEFA brought in a new commercial agency last year, Relevent Football Partners, to manage rights from 2027 to 2033… and they immediately started re-evaluating everything. Heineken’s been replaced by Anheuser-Busch InBev as beer partner, and media rights have increased from €2bn to €2.5bn per season. Now, Adidas has been replaced by Nike for match balls. New management doesn't care about legacy relationships. They care about maximising value. This happens in business constantly. Long-term partnerships end not because of poor service or relationship breakdown, but because market conditions change and someone else sees more value in what you have. Loyalty in business lasts exactly as long as the value equation makes sense, and Adidas learned this the hard way.