Adidas Smashes Nike in Most Lucrative Teams
From the 2025-2026 season, Adidas will dominate football kit sponsorship as no brand has for decades.
First and foremost, we want to clarify the data we consider in our process. We rely on the official report titled "The European Club Finance and Investment Landscape" by UEFA, which, among many other things, highlights the top 20 teams based on merchandising revenue. You can find more information in the report here.
The Numbers: Adidas Leads the Pack of 20 Most Lucrative Football Teams
Adidas has 11 teams of the top 20 teams under contract from the 2025-26 season, including six of the top 10 most lucrative partnerships, according to official UEFA data published in April 2024.
Adidas: 11 teams, including four of the top five — Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich.
Nike: Five teams in total, with four in the top 10, including Barcelona as the only non-Adidas club in the top five.
Puma: Four teams, but none in the top 10.
Merchandising saw an incredible 26% year-on-year growth
Adidas has bolstered its portfolio by signing Eintracht Frankfurt, Fenerbahçe, and Liverpool for the 2025-26 season, cementing its place at the top of the kit sponsorship hierarchy.
Kit and Merchandising: A Polarised Market on Incredible Rise
In general, the UEFA data highlights a sharp disparity in kit and merchandising revenues among clubs. The top 20 clubs dominate the space, with significant gaps between the elite and the lower of the Top 20 teams. Despite consistent kit manufacturing revenues, merchandising saw an incredible 26% year-on-year growth, underscoring the commercial kit strength of Europe’s football clubs.
What is also remarkable is that none of the top 20 teams is supplied by a smaller brand - the top 3 have the total dominance.
Are you surprised that Adidas leads so clearly ahead of all others? Let us know in the comments below.
