Football: why the success of the French team is paying huge dividends for Nike?
On Sunday, December 18 at 16:00, the final of the World Cup will be played between France and Argentina. But behind the scenes another match is taking place. Between Lionel Messi’s team partner Adidas and France’s team partner Nike. Because the world champion title has jersey sales and therefore a financial jackpot.
With the 2018 world champion and perhaps the second Sunday, the French football team and its mega-contract worth more than 50 million euros per year have therefore become the precious jewel of the American equipment supplier Nike in international football. Announced in 2016, the partnership, which runs from 2018 to 2026, was the world’s highest-ever partnership for a national team, on a par with Adidas’s partnership with Germany during the same period, but with less success: Germany’s He didn’t have a great run in Qatar.
30% increase in jersey sales during the World Cup
Adidas will be represented in the finals only by Argentina and Lionel Messi (personally under contract with the three-stripe brand). Sporting competition will be combined with financial competition between the two giants: an estimated 30% increase in sales of football shirts in the year of the World Cup, but the world championship will still increase this figure.
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The stakes are high for Nike, who only became a World Cup kit supplier in 1998 and are looking to add a third World Cup to their list after Brazil in 2002 and France recently. 4 years and Adidas already six. . Nike also made the package to be the official supplier of the Habs. The contract, which was signed in 2008 and came into effect in 2011, was worth €42.6 million a year at the time, which is already a record sum and more than four times what the FFF had received from Adidas up to that point.
13 of the 32 world teams represented by Nike
It was renegotiated by President Noël Le Graet to bring it up to just over 50 million euros a year by increasing the equipment allocation from around 12 million euros per season, but not the financial part for amateur clubs for the 18 national selections, but also for the Coupe. de France, who now benefit from preferential tariffs to equip themselves with the American brand.
Since that first ‘big hit’, Nike has had the lion’s share of the best representation at the start of the World Cup in Qatar, with 13 of the 32 teams under contract. That is as many as Adidas (seven) and Puma (six), who are second and third respectively.
Charlatan in 2018
“We have proudly sponsored the French Football Federation since 2011 and it remains one of our most iconic partnerships,” Nike said in a statement to AFP. “We wish them the best of luck in the finals this weekend,” he added, but was less forthcoming about the sales figures for the jerseys available or hoped for, nor possible expectations for the production of the three-star jersey. event of victory.
The Blues’ coronation in Russia caused a delay in ignition, if not a hiccup, in the launch of the two-star version. Several tens of thousands of jerseys were sold in the weeks immediately following the 4-2 victory over Croatia in the final. Later, the “replica” versions, cheaper (€80) than the “match” versions (€130), arrived in dribs and drabs and only from the fall due to production delays and shipping from Thailand. factories were located.
When Nike already released the 3-star jersey of the French team ? pic.twitter.com/g6ucmewGey
– leg bag. (@footpack) December 16, 2022
Still, Nike is unlikely to mass-produce items it will never sell if the Blues lose, and initially any three-star shirts will be reserved for the “lucky few”. A sign of fever in the face of this 2018 precedent? The Comma brand, however, posted an online announcement of the Blues’ “three-star” jersey on Friday before quickly retracting it, according to several media outlets.
(via AFP)
