Another football related post, I apologise to those who prefer their balls a different shape. 

This past weekend, Manchester City played at Burnley and succeeded in being three goals up within the first 7 minutes which made for a particularly miserable afternoon for the 18,000 or so Burnley fans who had to endure the remaining 83 minutes (and a further three goals against them). Petulant striker Craig Bellamy scored their second goal on 5 minutes following Emanuel Adebayor opened on 4 minutes. Now, for those of you who know the English Premier League well will be aware that Bellamy's ego is as fierce as his shooting ability. This is not a man who is afraid to be derided or wilt under criticism, and so it is with some considerable pride he wears his new Nike Mercurial Vapor. A regular football boot but notable (and much derided) mainly because they seem to be a rather violent shade of violet with an orange Nike swoosh. To me they look more like bowling shoes....

Anyway, such had been the debate and chuckling over Bellamy's boots recently that when he scored on Saturday his fellow Man City striker Adebayor, who at this point you should be aware wears an adidas boot, kneeled down on the grass and pretended to clean Bellamy's much lambasted Nike boots. 

This provided an image (reproduced below) which the sports management team at adidas will be very very happy to forget.  

You see, Nike and adidas are fiercely competitive and protective of their assets. Ever caught Beckham snapped wearing a Nike cap? Thought not. Ever seen Rooney in an adidas hoodie? Nope. The problem here is that during a game, a key adidas asset was televised cleaning the marvelous, magic and eye-catching boots of his Nike rival. I should point out here that Adebayor wears adidas' F50 boot and being their highest profile African player is naturally one of their main marketing assets for this year's World Cup in South Africa, of which adidas are a key sponsor. In short, just at a point where adidas will be making Adebayor an extremely high profile football brand asset, he is broadcast lovingly praising the Nike boot of his team mate. 

It just goes to demonstrate how fragile these player associations are. No lasting damage will be done of course but any young footballer watching this game who was wondering which football boot to buy would have had his mind easily swayed by the pleasure of seeing a Nike asset (Bellamy) joined by an adidas asset (Adebayor) in demonstrating that he really should buy the Nike boot. Hey, it must be the best right? Even Adebayor looks like he wants the Nike boot....ooops. 

I wonder if adidas will be having a quiet word with Adebayor's people in the run up to the World Cup, the two most important and high profile months that Nike and adidas have to battle it out for the football audience's preference, once every four years? Well, its kicked off now. 

Nike 1 - 0 adidas. Game on.