PUMA has cancelled its deal with Nigeria

Something has definitely gone wrong between Nigeria and PUMA, the German brand two days ago sent a letter to the Nigerian federation with which it put a definitive end to their partnership: "As a direct consequence of recent developments, in particular at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and pursuant to clauses 9.2 and 7.3 of the agreement, we hereby terminate the agreement with immediate effect." Taking a step back, it was 2019 when PUMA and Nigeria had just entered into an agreement on the basis of $2.7 million for the supply of technical materials to athletes for a period of three years. PUMA had also pledged to pay out of its own pocket for each and every athlete who made a podium at Tokyo2020, offering $15,000 for gold, $5,000 for silver and $3,000 for bronze respectively. According to some representatives, the contract was not agreed correctly, which is why the federation decided to change technical sponsors to Nigerian brand AFA Sports. But in reality there seems to be something much bigger going on, it seems that the agreement between Nigeria and PUMA is at the heart of a political power struggle between the past and current governments.

A situation that put some of the athletes in serious difficulty as they were forced to wear the same kits for all the competitions they competed in. Some even showed up with the old kits, like Blessing Oborududu who yesterday competed in the final with the uniform produced by Nike for Rio 2016. Then there are also those who, like Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, found themselves having to wash their shirts the night before the final, as witnessed in a video that appeared on his TikTok profile and was then immediately removed. For the Nigerian federation it's raining cats and dogs, already before the Games many athletes have been disqualified for administrative incompetence, now added to all this is the dispute with PUMA, destined to end up in court.