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Football kit makers challenged by supermarket

11/10/2007

Leading sportswear makers have been challenged by a UK supermarket to begin supplying them with replica football shirts.

Asda hopes a deal it has signed with Diadora, which is to supply the firm with Scotland's national football shirts, will encourage other manufacturers to follow suit and allow the retailer to sell a greater range of club kits in its stores.

The company says other sportswear firms have declined to supply it with their products, with the BBC claiming that Nike uses a 12-point list of criteria that prospective retailers must comply with in order to sell their goods.

Other major suppliers are reported to have adopted similar criteria, such as a requirement that specially-trained staff are available to sell products and that they should not be placed near unrelated items - conditions which it is claimed supermarkets find hard to meet.

A statement issued in response by Nike said: "Nike markets its products in the UK in accordance with a retailer distribution policy, ensuring that the retail environment for the sale of Nike products complies with certain minimum quality standards, so as to enable the customer to make purchases in an appropriate retail environment.

"Retailers meeting the relevant minimum standards can purchase the relevant Nike products, including football shirts," the sportswear manufacturer added.

Asda, which is to sell cut-price Scottish football kits at its stores in the region ahead of the nation's European Championship qualifier against Georgia next Wednesday, said it would be writing to all the big-name brands who manufactured football shirts to ask if they would be willing to supply the supermarket chain in the future.

If they refuse the company intends to ask them why, stressing it had expected manufacturers to begin dealing with retailers directly after a competition ruling two years ago.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) ruled in 2005 that Manchester United, Umbro and several sportswear retailers were guilty of price-fixing in relation to the sale of football shirts.

Asda's general manger for sporting goods, Paul Crier, said: "Our customers tell us that they would like to see football shirts at Asda price and we'd like to tackle this problem once and for all.

"It is hoped that our Diadora deal will mean other big brands will start to supply us as well."