Tottenham to agree INEOS deal as legal battle takes new twist
Tottenham and INEOS are expected to reach a settlement agreement despite their legal battle taking a new twist.
Spurs took legal action against INEOS after the petrochemicals company exited a sponsorship deal with the club three years into a five-year agreement.
INEOS, which is spearheaded by Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, first partnered with Tottenham in 2020 after agreeing to become their official hand sanitiser and 4×4 vehicle partners before the deal was expanded in 2022.
Tottenham are seeking just over £11million, which includes £5.5million for missed payments last year, another £5.3milllion for the 2026-27 campaign, the final year of the sponsorship deal, and an additional £300,000 in interest.
Tottenham offered sponsor deal as part of Harry Kane transfer
This article contains exclusive comment from Stefan Borson, a former financial adviser to Man City.
INEOS is counter-suing Tottenham for more than £1million after accusing them of holding sponsorship talks with Audi linked to the sale of Harry Kane to Bayern Munich, with the German manufacturer owning an eight per cent stake in the club.
The England captain joined the Bundesliga champions from Spurs in a £100million deal in August 2023.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson said: “I think they’ll settle it, so I don’t think they’ll ever go to court.
“It’s quite interesting that basically what happened was Spurs were trying to sell Harry Kane and as part of that, Bayern obviously made an introduction to Audi and I think Audi got quite close to doing a deal but didn’t.
“As part of Audi potentially doing the deal, Tottenham offered INEOS some additional benefits and rights in the sponsorship, but only if Audi took the sponsorship.
“Anyway, time passes, Audi don’t take the sponsorship, but INEOS, given that they love a deal, went to Spurs and said, ‘Well, look, why don’t you give us the extra benefits anyway? Effectively wrap them in, throw them in for free’.
“I think partly because Spurs have a new commercial team and a new commercial lead, they agreed. They weren’t probably quite specific enough that they were agreeing the extra rights to INEOS, but probably didn’t want to give them extra termination rights.
“But if you read the cases, I think that INEOS will succeed in saying that all of the rights that were potentially additional, including the termination right, were given to INEOS.
“Anyway, a few months passes and INEOS take both the additional rights and also take the ability to terminate early and issue a termination.
“But I don’t think that termination means that they shouldn’t pay the bit that was outstanding according to Spurs, and that was an indexation fee.
“It’s basically a fee that says that you take the base fee and you index link it effectively for inflation, so I think that money does seem to be owed by INEOS.”
Tottenham agree last-ditch Randal Kolo Muani deal
In terms of transfer activity, Thomas Frank has strengthened his squad throughout the summer window.
Tottenham agreed to sign Randal Kolo Muani on a season-long loan deal from PSG on deadline day (1 September).
The France international spent the second half of last season on loan at Juventus, where he registered 10 goals and three assists in 22 appearances.
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