Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Tuesday decided to drop Chinese sportswear Li Ning as its official kit sponsor for the Olympics. They further decided that the Indian athletes will wear unbranded apparel during the Tokyo Games.
The IOA just unveiled the Olympic kit designed by Li Ning last week. The kit unveiling led to huge criticism from the fans. Latter, the Sports Ministry advised IOA to not include a Chinese Sponsor for the Tokyo Olympics.
IOA President Narinder Batra and secretary general Rajeev Mehta's joint statement:
"We are aware of the emotions of our fans and we in the IOA have decided that we will withdraw from our existing contract with an apparel sponsor.
"Our athletes, coaches and support staff, will wear unbranded apparel."
"We would like our athletes to be able to train and compete without having to answer questions about the apparel brand."
The Chinese giants were the kit sponsor for Indian athletes for quite a long time. The athletes wore the kits at Rio Olympics and also in Commonwealth Asian games 2018.
The recent disputes in LAC border with China triggered a nationwide boycott of the Chinese product trend. After drawing criticism in this matter the IOA realised they hurt the sentiments of their fans.