Scandal over the new form of “Zenith”: Ukraine requires an explanation Joma

CSKA and Akhmat also play in Joma.

Zenit played in the new uniform for the first time, the club has it until the end of the 2023/24 season. Unusual is not only the term of one and a half years for one design, but also the supplier. Despite the fact that there is a Joma logo on the jersey, the club did not mention the Spanish company in any way in the presentation. It is only reported that this is a form from the international marketplace from Russia – Wildberries.

And Joma is the official outfitter of the Ukrainian national team. And there are still big questions for the brand.

The form is made to order – this is not the old Joma template

The home kit is made in traditional blue and blue colors: the T-shirt is decorated with a fragment of the map of St. Petersburg with the winding outlines of the Neva and other waterways, and the wave pattern on the sleeves symbolizes the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, Zenit explained.

Guest option – in bright colors. With a golden collar, a symbol of dominance in Russian football, a reference to gold medals around his neck.

As you can see, this is quite an original design. The form site Footy Headlines claims that it is not based on any of the previous Joma templates. This means that the Spaniards, to some extent, participated in the development of new Zenith kits: either themselves or under license.

Rumors about a potential partnership between Zenit and Joma have been circulating since the summer. It seems that the same outfitter (also through Wildberries) will dress Spartak

In Russian football, the departure of global brands primarily hit Zenit and Spartak. These clubs were paid for a licensing deal with Nike and a percentage of each kit sold.

“We do not have the right to disclose the size of the contract, but the amount is significant for the commercial revenue side,” Rustam Makhmutov, commercial director of Spartak, admitted. – At the same time, we do not want the relationship to be calculated only in terms of money. Nike was a reliable partner who supported our marketing initiatives, the opening of a new store, the fund’s activities and actively participated in the life and work of the Spartak Junior franchise network.

He clarified that Spartak earned at the level of the middle peasants from the top 5 leagues.

As a result, Zenit and Spartak are the only clubs that started this season in kits from old Nike collections. And in the summer, both clubs signed a contract with the Wildberries. In the case of Zenit, it was reported that the team would be leaving the retailer’s logo in the second half of the season. This explains why the parties presented new kits only in the middle of the season.

The fact that “Zenith” is negotiating with Joma, “Sport-Express” announced in the summer. Then the club denied this information, but there were already suspicions that the change of form and outfitter would still happen in the winter.

According to SE, Spartak will also be wearing Joma, but from the start of next season. It is assumed that the home and away kits will have to be chosen from a line of templates (too little time to develop original solutions), but the third form may be exclusive. Vedomosti. Sport” reported that there were no plans for direct cooperation between Spartak and Joma: Wildberries would be the supplier of ready-made kits.

CSKA and Akhmat play in Joma uniforms – both clubs were sanctioned

Joma was founded in the mid-60s by Fructuoso Lopez and named after his son José Manuel (the name is pronounced “Homa”, it’s Spanish, and the first letter is jota), now he is the president of the company.

For Spain, the outfitter has achieved great heights, but internationally it is still a second or third tier brand. Of the notable clubs in the current portfolio: Atalanta, Villarreal, Getafe, Hoffenheim and Norwich. Otherwise, the company dresses not the most prominent clubs and teams around the world (there are very exotic clients – Cuba and Honduras).

Joma tries to make money wherever there is an opportunity for this. In the 2015/16 season, when there was a slight thaw in relations between Iran and the West, the brand appeared on Sepahan T-shirts. Then there were even insiders that the company would become the official outfitter of the Iranian national team, but it didn’t come to that.

In 2022, when major international brands were leaving Russia en masse, Joma was in no hurry to leave. This is despite the fact that the US Treasury has imposed sanctions against the state corporation VEB.RF and all its main assets, including CSKA , with which the outfitter has been cooperating since 2020.