Decision makers at Puma will not offer Man City a huge new kit deal because the “main driver of sales” – Erling Haaland – could quit at any time.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, who exclusively told Football Insider that any renegotiated kit deal is likely to instead be scalable according to how many units the Cityzens can shift.
City are contracted to Puma until 2030, although it is not uncommon to ask for improved terms in the middle of a deal.
The i reported last Friday (14 October), that the arrival of Haaland, who joined from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, has led directly to a 101 per cent upswing in shirt sales.
This almost certainly means City will annual announce commercial revenues beyond the £271.7milion they recorded in the last financial year.
But Maguire claims that Puma will be well aware that Haaland, who has hit the 20-goal mark in just 15 appearances for his new club, is far from guaranteed to stay at City in the long term.
“The popularity of City shirts is noticeable,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“Anyone who has been overseas will certainly have seen plenty of Haaland shirts around.
“I think any deals with kit manufacturers are likely to be tiered, however, because Haaland can go just as quickly as he arrived.
“Therefore, no kit manufacturer will want to lock themselves into a long-term deal if the main driver of sales could potentially no longer be at the club.
“I think what we can expect to see is that if City hit a certain number of shirt sales, the likes of Puma might be willing to increase the percentage in commission on every unit sold.
“This would protect the manufacturer as well as reward the club and the player.”