National team
Watzke: Difference in supplier offers “gigantic”
The head of the DFL supervisory board, Hans-Joachim Watzke, also commented on the DFB’s Nike deal. photo
© Bernd Thissen/dpa
The German Football Association’s Nike deal provoked an enormous number of reactions. DFL Supervisory Board Chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke cannot understand some of these from politics – with one exception.
DFL supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim According to his own statements, Watzke was “extremely annoyed” by comments from politicians about the upcoming change of supplier at the German Football Association from Adidas to Nike.
“There are people who said five years ago: “Love for the fatherland pisses me off” and are now suddenly discovering patriotism,” said Watzke, who is also DFB vice-president, in a Sky interview. “The only sensible thing I read was the Chancellor’s sentence: That this is the association’s business.”
Two and a half months before the start of the home European Championship, the DFB surprisingly announced that the contract with long-term partner Adidas would expire at the end of 2026 after more than 70 years. From 2027 until the end of 2034, US rival Nike will equip the DFB. Numerous politicians criticized this; Green Party politician Robert Habeck said he would have “wished for a little more local patriotism.” Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) spoke of a “wrong decision where commerce destroys a tradition and a piece of home.”
“It was clear and I can understand that this is such a big issue in public,” 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.” The DFB had to “advertise without discrimination, and we stuck to that.”
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 politicians could comment “that it was unpatriotic. I just found that totally wrong,” said Watzke.
According to a report by the “Handelsblatt” citing industry circles, Nike’s involvement with the DFB will cost more than 100 million euros per year. Adidas is said to have paid 50 million euros annually to the association so far.
Watzke would like to have more BVB players at the European Championships
Watzke is calm about the fact that some of Borussia Dortmund’s professionals are not being considered for the national team – at least for now. “Even if it would annoy me, I wouldn’t say it. You just have to accept that,” said the chairman of the BVB management in the Sky interview. “It has advantages at the moment. But I would like to have a few more players there at the European Championships.”
National coach Julian Nagelsmann had called up striker Niclas Füllkrug from BVB for the two international matches against runner-up world champions France and the Netherlands. He did without proven players like Mats Hummels, Niklas Süle and Julian Brandt.
He had to say “quite honestly”: “They didn’t do that much advertising for themselves,” said Watzke. “After all, we are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. We have to leave the national coach alone now. He should make his decisions and we will then concentrate on the Euros.”