Nike instead of Adidas: The separation was not as harmonious as the DFB explained

Football After more than 70 years

End of an era – Nike beats Adidas for national football team

Status: 22.03.2024 | Reading time: 4 minutes

After more than 70 years – Nike beats Adidas for the national football team

A turning point for the national team: The German Football Association is letting the contract with long-term partner Adidas expire and will be equipped by Nike from 2027. The DFB justified the surprising decision, among other things, by saying that Nike had made by far the best economic offer.

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After more than seven decades, the German sporting goods giant Adidas is moving away from the jersey of the German national team. In the future, the DFB will rely on the US giant Nike as its new supplier. But the separation apparently did not go as harmoniously as the association explained.

It was only on Monday that they found rapid sales. Toni Kroos, who has returned to the German national team, went to downtown Frankfurt and handed out a few new national team jerseys to passers-by. Supplier Adidas recently launched two jerseys designed specifically for the upcoming European Championships: a white one – and the much discussed purple-pink one.

For another tournament, the 2026 World Cup, which will take place in the USA, Canada and Mexico, Adidas can think about the clothing of the elite selection of the German Football Association (DFB) and all other teams in the association – then that’s it.

On Thursday, the DFB announced that Nike would be the new supplier from 2027 to 2034. The US company, it said in a statement, “will equip all DFB national teams and promote German football in its entirety.” It is not known how much Nike will pay for the exclusive partnership. In any case, the change in supplier represents a turning point. Adidas, the company with the famous three stripes, has been clothing the German national teams for more than seven decades.

“We have a lot to thank Adidas for”

“We look forward to working with Nike and the trust they have placed in us. The future partnership will enable the DFB to continue to carry out key tasks in the coming decade with a view to the comprehensive development of football in Germany. But it is also clear: until December 2026, we will do everything in our power to achieve shared success with our long-standing and current partner Adidas, to whom German football has owed a lot for more than seven decades,” said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf quoted in a communication.

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The award to the future supplier partner Nike was the result of a transparent and non-discriminatory tender, said Dr. Holger Blask, CEO of DFB GmbH & Co. KG, know. “Nike made by far the best economic offer and also impressed with its substantive vision, which also includes a clear commitment to the promotion of amateur and popular sports as well as the sustainable development of women’s football in Germany. The timing of the tender is usual with regard to the planning and lead times and was discussed in advance with all relevant market participants.”

But in the end it probably didn’t go as harmoniously as the DFB’s statement suggested. Because Adidas was apparently surprised by the end of the long-term partnership. “Our contract with the German Football Association runs until the end of 2026. We were informed by the DFB today that the association will have a new supplier from 2027,” said a spokesman for the company in response to a query from WELT. In the end, the numbers on offer probably made the difference.

The sporting goods company will host the German team in the summer – as it did at the 2021 European Championship. Players, coaches and coaches will be accommodated at the company headquarters on the home ground in Herzogenaurach. The deal with the DFB will run for three more years, then there will be a historic turning point.

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In 2006, Nike was rejected by the DFB. At the time, the group had reportedly offered 500 million euros for a deal over ten years. But the DFB remained loyal to its long-time partner Adidas, even though the offer was said to have been much lower. Theo Zwanziger, then president of the DFB, confirmed in a conversation with “Kicker” in February 2007 that Oliver Bierhoff, a former Nike representative and team manager of the national team at the time, had made the Nike offer as a sort of “messenger”.

As far as the DFB and its sponsors are concerned, it is currently still unclear whether VW will remain a partner of the world’s largest sports association beyond the European Championships. The talks are ongoing. But it’s apparently about money, they say. The VW Group, which replaced Mercedes at the DFB on January 1, 2019, is said to have paid 25 million euros annually since then.