Spurning Nike yet again, Germany’s national soccer association has chosen to stay teamed-up with Adidas as its supplier. However, keeping up with the reigning World Cup winners comes at a price for Adidas.
The German national soccer association (DFB) and athletic apparel and equipment company Adidas extended their decades-long cooperation until 2022, the two organizations announced on Monday at a joint press conference in Paris.
“They were the most transparent, ambitious and economically successful negotiations in the history of our association,” said DFB President Reinhard Grindel.
Under the new contract, Adidas is expected to pay at least 50 million euro ($57 million) per year for the exclusive rights to outfit and supply Germany’s national team, the reigning World Cup champions. This is double the amount the company is believed to be paying under the current contract, which was set to expire in 2018.
Grindel promised to use the money “to make the DFB and German football better.”
A win-win deal
The partnership reaches back to 1954, five years after the company’s founding, when Germany won the World Cup wearing Adidas cleats. They entered into their current contract in 2007.
Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer said at the press conference that Adidas wanted the partnership to extend beyond 2022, though the DFB refused. “I can tell you though that we will be sitting at the table again in four years,” he added.
Times are rather good now for Adidas, which started the year off strong after tallying 350 million euro in profit in the first quarter of 2016.
The new price tag marks a sharp increase, though still doesn’t reach Adidas’ deal with the German Bundesliga’s most lucrative team, Bayern München. The Munich-based squad will be raking in 60 million euro a year until 2030.
jtm/uhe (AFP, dpa, SID)
