Guangzhou Evergrande fined HK$29m for changing sponsor’s jersey in regional final
A district court punishes the Chinese club for swapping their Dongfeng Nissan kits for Evergrande Life jerseys during the AFC Champions League
China’s Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao must pay almost US$4 million in damages to automaker Dongfeng Nissan for failing to wear kit sponsored by the company, state media have said.
The two-time AFC Champions League winners said they had received a ruling from Guangzhou Huadu District People’s Court to cough up 24,778,645 yuan (HK$29.3 million) in fines, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Dongfeng Nissan, a joint venture between Japan’s Nissan Motors and China’s Dongfeng Motor Corporation headquartered in Wuhan, sued the team for changing kit during the second part of the 2015 AFC Champions League final, where they beat the UAE’s Al Ahli 1-0, Xinhua said.
The company had paid more than US$16 million to have Evergrande’s official red shirts emblazoned with its Chinese name for the 2014-2015 season, according to Xinhua.
In the final, however, the jerseys were swapped out for ones bearing the name of Evergrande Life, an insurance company affiliated with the team’s majority shareholders, instead.