Rugby: New Zealand Rugby takes legal action over early termination of Ineos partnership

New Zealand Rugby is taking legal action against its commercial partner Ineos, a company specialised in the chemicals sector, on the grounds that the latter "has (unilaterally) breached its sponsorship agreement" and has "failed to pay the first instalment of the 2025 sponsorship fee," announced the NZR in a statement sent to several local and international media such as The New Zealand Herald and ESPN on 11/02/2025.

Ineos became an "official performance partner" of the New Zealand rugby teams for six years from 2022 on 27/07/2021. The group's logo appears as a back shorts sponsor for the All Blacks and Black Ferns, as well as on the shirts of the two rugby 7s teams, as part of an agreement valued at NZ$8m (€4.7m) per year. The withdrawal of Ineos from 2025 could therefore result in an estimated loss of revenue of NZ$24m (€13.1m) over the remaining three years of the contract with the NZR, which posted a net loss of NZ$8.91m on 31/12/2023. Ineos was one of News Zealand Rugby's main sponsors, alongside Altrad (construction and public works, FRA, main shirt sponsor) and adidas…