Football
ESPN staff 8y

Guangzhou Evergrande anger sponsors with logo switch for AFC CL final

AFC Champions League winners Guangzhou Evergrande will face legal action from the car company that sponsors their shirts after a last-minute kit change ahead of last Saturday's final.

The Chinese Super League club defeated Al Ahli of the UAE 1-0, but Guangzhou's red jerseys were labelled with the Chinese name of Evergrande Life, an insurance subsidiary of one of the club's co-owners, rather than the logo of paid sponsors Dongfeng Nissan.

The car company paid more than 100 million yuan ($16 million) to sponsor the club for the entirety of their Super League campaign in kits featuring the name and a car model number from the firm.

Dongfeng Nissan and Nissan of Japan -- the joint venture that purchased the sponsorship -- denounced the move in a statement, saying the club "took the liberty of unilaterally changing and replacing the chest advertisement without our company's consent" after only requesting to make the change "one minute" before the game.

An executive from the club told AFP that a request to negotiate the kit change had been lodged 10 days before the match, but that Evergrande received no response from the joint venture.

The executive added that a statement from the club was prepared, but had not been released as they hoped "friendly consultations" could settle the dispute.

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