DFB President Bernd Neuendorf is “a bit stunned” by the criticism from many politicians about his association’s million dollar deal with the US company Nike. He will certainly not apologize for the fact that the German Football Association will no longer wear Adidas from 2027, said Neuendorf on Saturday on the sidelines of the international test match against France in Lyon (2-0). But he would like to explain the background – especially to Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck, who wanted more “location patriotism” from the financially troubled DFB.
Habeck’s statements were “very strange,” said the former SPD state politician Neuendorf: “This is about competition, this is about a market economy.” The DFB simply accepted the significantly better offer. “It’s about not damaging the association, and we would certainly have done that if we hadn’t accepted this offer,” said Neuendorf. He would be “gladly available” for an exchange with the Green Party politician Habeck.
Habeck is also willing to talk
The Economics Minister also appeared ready to talk on Sunday. “We always like to talk – maybe also about sport, tradition and capital, and also about promoting youth sports,” he told the dpa. Regarding the Nike coup, he had previously said that he “could hardly imagine the German jersey without the three stripes. For me, Adidas and black-red-gold always belonged together. I would have liked a little more local patriotism.”
DFL supervisory board chairman and DFB deputy Hans-Joachim Watzke also described this, as did most other politicians’ reactions, as “totally wrong”. There are “people who said five years ago ‘love of country pisses me off’ and are now suddenly discovering patriotism,” said Watzke on Sky. The DFB announced on Thursday that it would let the contract with long-term partner Adidas, which was valid until the end of 2026, expire and would be equipped by the US giant Nike from 2027 to 2034. The DFB does not reveal how much Nike pays. The sum is said to be almost twice as high as what Adidas is currently paying: around 50 million euros.
As a result, a discussion developed, to which Neuendorf now noted that a lot of things were said without any background knowledge. CDU leader Friedrich Merz, for example, called the decision “incomprehensible” and “unpatriotic.” Hesse’s CDU Prime Minister Boris Rhein said: “The world champion wears Adidas, not some American fantasy brand.” Watzke noted in the interview that “the only sensible thing I read” was the sentence from Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), who said that the issue was the association’s business. That’s how experts see it: “If a non-profit football association can earn almost twice as much and almost 400 million euros more over eight years and put at least a larger part of it into the development of children’s, youth and women’s football, then that’s it “That alone has no alternative,” said sports economist Christoph Breuer.
The conflict between politics and the DFB is remarkable less than three months before the home European Championship (June 14th to July 14th), and the relationship has never seemed really harmonious in the past few months. “I was very surprised that politicians, without any knowledge and, above all, without the facts, would lean so far out of the populist window. I have to honestly say that is a new quality,” said DFB managing director Andreas Rettig at ran. “Perhaps it would have been better to remain silent once or twice.”
However, the DFB was criticized not only for the basic decision, but also for the timing. Just over a week before, Adidas and the DFB had presented the jerseys for the home European Championships. The campaign with the pink away jersey was well received. In addition, the national team lives during the European Championships at Adidas’ so-called home ground in Herzogenaurach, Franconia. The partnership will end at the end of 2026 after more than 70 years.
“It was clear that this was such a big issue in public and I can understand that,” said Watzke. “When I was confronted with it, I had to take a breath. It was a long-standing relationship between the DFB and Adidas.” But there was no room for Watzke to make a different decision either. The difference in offers was “so gigantic”. “There was simply no other solution. If you put a tender out there, then at some point someone will be angry,” said Watzke. Rules couldn’t be created and then commented on in politics “that it was unpatriotic. I just found that totally wrong,” said Watzke.