Brazilian federation to take legal actions against Umbro

Just last month, Umbro chose to open its archives ahead of the upcoming World Cup by producing "The Nations' Collection", which remixed and reinvented the historical jerseys of the teams involved in the international competition. A launch that did not please the CBF, the Brazilian football federation, which decided to open legal action against the British company, guilty of misusing the intellectual property of the verdeoro national team. Umbro was the technical sponsor of the Brazilian national team from 1991 to 1997, a period during which the Seleção won the 1994 World Cup against Italy in Pasadena. And it was precisely by taking inspiration from the World Champions' jersey that Umbro created one of the jerseys included in its collection without, however, using any of the CBF's proprietary crest or logo.

In fact, the two-diamond brand used a bootleg style, with fake crests inspired by the originals but without direct references. Nike, which succeeded Umbro as technical sponsor, has already stated that it does not want to get into the issue with a note in which it specifies how "the responsibility of dealing with partnerships, contracts and intellectual property rights related to the Brazilian team lies with the CBF." Umbro also said that to date it has not received any legal notice on the matter, either from the Brazilian Federation or from those of other national teams included in the collection. Then again, bootlegs have always been a controversial aspect of jerseys, from stalls to unlicensed PES clubs, but this stance by the CBF is unlikely to have any real result.