Ineos, the British petrochemical giant, is counter-suing Tottenham Hotspur as the dispute over their terminated sponsorship agreement with the English Premier League soccer club drags on.
Tottenham filed a commercial claim against the Ineos Automotive arm in June for breaching the terms of a £17 million ($22.9 million), five-year contract.
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According to legal papers lodged at the High Court, Tottenham are claiming up to £11 million from the petrochemical firm, whose Ineos Grenadier off-road vehicle was the official 4×4 vehicle partner of the club in a deal signed in 2022.
However, Ineos, owned by British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, now a minority owner of Manchester United, has hit back at Spurs, accusing them of lining up a sponsorship deal with German rival car brand Audi, around the transfer of Harry Kane to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich in 2023.
In a response submitted to the High Court last week, Ineos claims: “The particulars of the claim make no mention of a highly significant series of events by which the club, unbeknownst to Ineos, started negotiating with a major competitor to Ineos with the intention of granting rights to that competitor which were exclusive to Ineos.”
In the papers, Ineos added: “On or around 3 August 2023 (i.e. early in contract year two), Todd Kline (the former Tottenham commercial chief) indicated to Ashley Reed of Ineos that the club had been in discussions with the German car manufacturer Audi in connection with rights which were the same as, or substantially similar to, the rights granted to Ineos under the agreement and/or the club had been negotiating with Audi in respect of rights which were exclusive to Ineos under clause 4 of the agreement.
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By GlobalData“According to Mr Kline, the discussions and/or negotiations related to a proposed transfer of the club’s player Harry Kane to the German club FC Bayern Munich.”
While the Audi deal failed to materialise, Ineos claims that the events had led both parties to agree that they could terminate the agreement at the end of the third year. Kline was Tottenham’s head of commercial at the time and is now at Chelsea.
Ineos is now seeking £1 million from Spurs, which terminated the contract on March 11 this year before claiming they had done so because Ineos had failed to pay a £5 million-plus instalment that was due on December 1 last year.
Throughout the messy legal battle, Ineos has maintained that it had a right to exit the agreement.
Tottenham are also seeking a minimum of around £5.3 million in damages.
Ineos’ relationship with Tottenham started in December 2020 when the company’s Ineos Hygienics became the official hand sanitizer supplier of the club amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Since Ratcliffe’s minority stake acquisition in Manchester United (although he has control over the on-pitch side of operations), Ineos has been rowing back its sports sponsorship deals.
In late March, it settled with the New Zealand Rugby (NZR) governing body following a dispute over the early termination of their sponsorship deal.
NZR filed a lawsuit against Ineos for alleged breach of contract after the company ended its six-year performance partnership three years early.
The deal, signed in 2021 and worth a reported $4.5 million per year, was due to cover the 2022 to 2027 period, with Ineos branding appearing on the back of playing shorts and on the front of training jerseys for the men’s and women’s senior sides – the All Blacks and Black Ferns – as well as the New Zealand Māori team and New Zealand sevens team.
In its original lawsuit, NZR stated that Ineos had failed to pay the first scheduled installment for 2025 and only informed the governing body at the end of January that it had been intending to exit the agreement effective from January 1.
Ineos also parted ways with four-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie, having backed his Britannia America’s Cup sailing team since 2018.
The global chemicals producer also owns European soccer teams Nice (France) and Lausanne-Sport (Switzerland) and has a minority stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 motor racing team.
