In May, BMW pulled out of advanced sponsorship talks with Bayern Munich, citing trust issues and doubts around value-for-money. Bayern is now demanding compensation, arguing an agreement-in-principle had been signed.
As part of a 10-year deal worth €800m ($898m), BMW would have acquired Audi’s 8.33-per-cent stake in the club’s holding company. The partnership would have been set to launch by 2025, when Audi’s current partnership is due to expire.
According to tz.de, BMW wanted a resignation clause included in the contract at the last-minute. Bayern refused, and this led to the deal being cancelled. German news site Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) reports that the amount Bayern is demanding is between 10 to 20 million euros.
Audi offered an improved fee of €60m per year to retain the partnership, plus a proposed new contract that guarantees at least €1bn in revenue from over a 12-year period.
A BMW spokesperson previously told FAS that matching Audi’s improved offer would have been “economically unjustifiable” and “indefensible from a business point of view.”
Audi will remain a lead partner at Bayern alongside technical sponsor adidas, main shirt sponsor T-Mobile and stadium naming rights partner Allianz.
The German automaker, which is headquarter in Ingolstadt, has been a Bayern partner for 18 years, having first signed in 2002.