The FAI and their kit partner of 26 years JACC Distributors look to be heading for the courts after a “bombshell” of an email landed in Johnathon Courtenay’s inbox shortly after 9 AM yesterday morning.
It was signed by FAI Chair Roy Barrett and gave formal notice of the Association’s “termination of its sponsorship agreement with immediate effect, in accordance with the terms of the agreement.”
Before noon JACC Distributors had replied stating that they rejected fully any attempt to terminate the agreement.
In a statement issued shortly after this though, the FAI went public with the decision and said that it “would like to thank JACC Sports for all its support to the Association over the years and wishes it all the best in the future.”
Those years extend back to the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States when JACC, using the Umbro marque, took over the contract from Adidas who had previously supplied the kits through Italia ’90.
The deal was renewed time after time. Umbro provided most of the kit, apart from a period between 2017 and 2020 when it was done by New Balance, also in the JACC family.
The latest renewal, the sixth, came in 2019 at the height of the FAI financial crisis and was seen at the time as an important vote of confidence.
“The FAI and JACC Sports Distributors Ltd have enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership for many years now and this new six-year deal comes at a very important time in the history of Irish football,” said acting FAI General Manager at the time, Noel Mooney, speaking to Sport for Business.
“They are also a great supporter of the SSE Airtricity League and have a genuine love of Irish football that makes them a perfect partner for the FAI.”
The deal was for a six-year extension from August 2020 to bring the Association through the World Cup Cycles of Qatar, Australia, and the United States /Canada/ Mexico World Cups and the Euro 22 and Euro 24, and Euro 25 competitions across the Men’s and Women’s senior teams.
Times and circumstances change in life and in business which can be brutal. It would appear likely that a substantial new deal may have been put in place which will enable the FAI to take advantage of the Christmas market and a likely surge in gift buying of the Women’s kit in particular ahead of next season’s World Cup games in Australia.
It was obviously without recourse to the existing partner though.
JACC Distributors hit back with a statement that “We find it highly irregular and unwarranted in terms of any working, that the Association’s longest standing sponsor and the sponsor which has contributed more financially than anybody else to the Association would be treated this way.”
“The fact that Roy Barrett and the FAI have chosen to go public with something that we have rejected seems agenda fuelled at best and malicious at worst. We are taking legal advice and will not be making any further comment at this time.”
The current kit was launched as part of the FAI “This is Our Game” campaign in March of this year. It evokes the green fields of Ireland in its design and was worn for the first time in the FAI Centenary game against Belgium. It was also the kit that was woern by the Women’s National Team in qualifying for Australia 2023.
It is not clear now whether legal action would stop any impending competitor announcement or whether the Christmas market will now still be in play.
Any new sponsorship of the Men’s National team would clearly have a new branded kit for retail sales as a core component and it may yet be that the two are linked in some way but for now it has gone legal and the shutters have been drawn on any further public comment from either side.
Hopefully, it will all be resolved in as fair a way as possible on both sides as soon as possible.
