Guangzhou Evergrande's second AFC Champions League win in three years is tainted by reports that one of their sponsors, the Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, is threatening to sue the Chinese football club due to an alleged jersey advertisement contract breach.

Yutang Sports reported that Dongfeng Nissan, a partnership of the globally popular Nissan Motor Corporation of Japan and Dongfeng Motor Corporation of China, "is seeking a public response from Evergrande" to explain why the club dropped its jersey ad during the second leg of the AFC Champions League final against UAE's Al-Ahli Dubai FC on November 21st.

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The report also mentioned that the company "will reserve the right to take further action" as there had been no response from Evergrande as of the moment.

China Daily noted that Guangzhou swapped Dongfeng Nissan's ad from their championship jerseys with that of Evergrande Real Estate Group's new insurance company, Evergrande Life, "without agreement" from the automotive company during such a high-profile match.

Dongfeng Nissan reportedly shelled out $15.66 million for the right to put its logo on the five-time Chinese Super League champions' shirts in all of their games during the 2014-2015 season and they were disappointed by Evergrande's sudden decision to take it off in the said primetime event.

Evergrande reportedly tried to buy-back the ad rights to their shirt, but the company rejected the offer "days before the second leg of the final". An email notification was said to be sent to Dongfeng Nissan prior to the replacement, still company officials were caught by surprise.

Many users of Chinese social media site Weibo reportedly condemned Guangzhou's action, calling it a "disgrace" and their recent win "less glamorous" because of the jersey change.

Meanwhile, an article in Inside World Football said that Nissan was "extremely shocked" about what happened and that their China arm, Dongfeng Nissan, is going to take "legal action against Guangzhou Evergrande of breaking their sponsorship agreement".

Nissan further said that Evergrande "took the liberty of unilaterally changing and replacing the chest advertisement without our company's consent".

An unidentified official from the football club reportedly said that Evergrande has already prepared an official statement to clarify the incident, but they were not released yet to avoid blowing it "out of proportion" as they "hoped that friendly consultations" would be enough to quell the dispute.

TagsChina Football News 2015, China Football News, 2015 AFC Champions League Final, Dongfeng Nissan