Tottenham Hotspur and INEOS, the petrochemicals company which owns a stake in Manchester United, have reached a settlement to bring to an end their legal dispute.
Both parties confirmed to The Athletic that they had reached an out of court agreement but declined to provide details or comment further. The Telegraph reported that INEOS, which is owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has agreed to pay Spurs an undisclosed sum.
In June this year, Tottenham filed a legal claim against the company’s subsidiary INEOS Automotive Limited after it after withdrew from a sponsorship agreement with the Premier League club.
In August, INEOS Automative counter-sued Tottenham.
The legal dispute centred on the ‘Official Partnership Agreement’ between Tottenham and INEOS that was signed in December 2022.
This agreement was intended to grant INEOS commercial sponsorship rights for almost five years, specifically relating to the ‘INEOS Grenadier’ brand in exchange for almost £17.5million in sponsorship fees, not including indexation.
Tottenham argued in their ‘Particulars of Claim’, filed to the High Court in June and seen by The Athletic, that they terminated the agreement on March 11 this year.
They cited INEOS’ failure to pay an indexation payment of almost £480,000, which was due by 16 August 2024, and a sponsorship fee of £5.1m, which was due by 1 December 2024, as well as another interest charge of almost £300,000. Tottenham’s claim described the failure to pay as a “material breach of the agreement”.
Tottenham also claimed damages of more than £5.2m for breach of contract. INEOS maintained their right to terminate the agreement.
In INEOS’ ‘Defence and Counterclaim’, also seen by The Athletic, they argued that the company wrote to terminate the agreement in a letter dated December 6 2024, in effect from 30 June 2025.
Their argument is that neither the indexation payment of almost £480,000 nor the sponsorship fee of £5.1m were therefore payable. INEOS further argued that Tottenham were “not entitled to terminate the Agreement”.
INEOS’ counterclaim argued that Tottenham “failed to grant” INEOS rights from 11 March 2025, when they wrote to INEOS to terminate the agreement, until 30 June 2025, “when the Agreement terminated pursuant to the INEOS Termination Letter”. For these 112 days, INEOS claimed damages of £1,073,972.60.