British watch business Tribus announced that it was withdrawing from its multi-million pound partnership with Liverpool Football Club in protest at it becoming a founder member of the European Super League.
Tribus took to Twitter yesterday afternoon, hours before all six clubs including Liverpool took the decision to walk away from the proposed tournament, to announced its decision.
The tweet has been liked almost 19,000 times and received hundreds of comments in support of the decision.
The story was picked up by Sky Sports when former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher spoke about the Tribus decision during build up to a live Premier League match.
Tribus was launched last year by James Ward and his two brothers, Jonny and Jake.
Their father Chris Ward — eponymous co-founder of the Christopher Ward watch brand — is on Tribus’s board of directors.
The family are all life-long Liverpool fanatics.
The deal to become Official Timekeeper for Liverpool FC was made possible by multi-million pound funding from a group of wealthy investors who are all said to be fans of the Merseyside club as well as passionate watch collectors.
Terms of the deal with Liverpool FC have not been disclosed, but Chris Ward has described it as a “chunky seven-figure deal that includes branding around Liverpool’s Anfield stadium, broadcasting Tribus to the club’s reach of 800 million people”.
With the European Super League project now seemingly dead in the water, it remains to be seen whether Tribus will reverse its decision and return to its partnership with Liverpool.
A statement sent to WatchPro from Tribus co-founder James Ward this morning (following the decision by Liverpool and the five other English Premier League clubs to withdraw from the Super League) says: “The business decided to withdraw from the partnership as the severe disruption and negativity that ensued around the club and, by association our brand, left us with no alternative”.
“We operate with very high moral values and respect for others. These principles were being severely challenged by the stance taken by the Club Owners. Tribus sincerely hope that the Owners of Liverpool Football Club can repair this situation for the greater good of football, the club, the fans and our city.”
