Nigeria’s national football teams are set to return to adidas after the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) agreed an equipment and sponsorship deal worth $8.5m annually with the German sportswear company.
The agreement will end Nigeria’s 11-year association with Nike and, according to the NFF’s former president, Ibrahim Gusau, represents the biggest publicly disclosed kit deal involving an African football federation.
Gusau, who resigned alongside the NFF executive committee on Thursday, disclosed details of the agreement at a press conference in Abuja.
Under the deal, adidas will pay the NFF $4.5m a year in cash and supply a further $4m worth of equipment for Nigeria’s national teams.
The agreement also includes a 20 per cent royalty on merchandise sales, potentially increasing the value of the deal beyond the guaranteed annual package.
Gusau said the contract had already been signed, although its formal announcement had initially been planned for September.
“It is about the highest kit sponsorship in Africa. No other country in Africa has that kind of sponsorship,” he said.
“Adidas will pay Nigeria $4.5 million every year in cash and then they will provide kit worth $4 million every year.”
The agreement would surpass the publicly reported value of Morocco’s kit deal with Puma, estimated at about $1.7m, which had previously been among the highest disclosed agreements involving an African national federation.
Gusau said the outgoing Nike contract, signed in 2015, had become inadequate as the financial and logistical demands on Nigeria’s national teams increased.
He said the existing agreement provided $500,000 annually in cash and $1m in equipment, terms that had remained unchanged for more than a decade.
“As (former) president, I cannot gift someone a jersey because we met a contract that has been running for 11 years on the same terms worth $500,000 in cash and $1 million in kit supply,” he said.
Nigeria signed its first Nike agreement in April 2015 after its previous adidas contract was terminated following disputes over contractual obligations during the 2014 World Cup.
Gusau said the limitations of the Nike deal had at times forced the federation to purchase additional kits for its teams, including the Nigeria women’s Under-20 side at the World Cup in Poland.
“We have to buy jerseys for the girls that travelled to Poland because $1 million worth of equipment cannot even service Super Eagles qualifiers for World Cup and Nations Cup as well as Super Falcons,” he said.
According to Gusau, the NFF began seeking improved terms from Nike in 2024 but was unable to reach an agreement.
The federation subsequently sought proposals from other kit manufacturers, while Nike retained a contractual right to match the best offer.
He said Nike ultimately failed to match adidas’ proposal, paving the way for the change.
“Finally, they agreed that we could negotiate with others. At the end of the day we contacted adidas and other kit sponsors and we were able to secure a substantial agreement with adidas,” Gusau said.
Adidas previously supplied Nigeria’s kits around the period of the country’s 1994 Africa Cup of Nations triumph and its debut at the World Cup, before returning as the national team’s kit supplier from 2004 to 2014. That second spell included Nigeria’s 2013 Africa Cup of Nations victory.
Nike’s return in 2015 also produced several widely recognised Nigeria kits, including the shirt worn at the 2018 World Cup.
Gusau said adidas’ stronger retail presence in Nigeria was another factor behind the decision to switch suppliers.
He said the company currently operates about 13 stores in the country and plans to increase that number to 32 within two years, potentially creating greater opportunities for merchandise sales and royalty income for the NFF.
He added that increased commercial revenue could give the federation more financial flexibility, including in the recruitment of high-profile coaches for the Super Eagles and Super Falcons, an area in which funding constraints have previously limited its options.
