The car company that sponsors the shirts of Asia's newly crowned football champions has launched legal action against the club for changing their kit for Saturday's AFC Champions League final, the firm said.
Chinese-Japanese firm Dongfeng Nissan paid more than 100 million yuan for the season-long rights to Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao's apparel, according to Xinhua.
Huang Bowen’s shirt shows the Dongfeng Nissan sponsorship in the first leg of ther final. Photo: Xinhua
The official red shirts are emblazoned with the firm's name in Chinese, along with a car model number.
But when the team took the field for the second leg of the AFC Champions League final – when they defeated Al Ahli of the UAE 1-0 – the tops were instead labelled with the Chinese name of Evergrande Life, an insurance subsidiary of one of the club's co-owners.
Guangzhou celebrate their win. Photo: AFP
Dongfeng Nissan, a joint venture between China's Dongfeng Motors and Nissan of Japan, which is an alliance with French firm Renault, issued a furious denunciation.
The club “took the liberty of unilaterally changing and replacing the chest advertisement without our company's consent”, it said.
