France soccer team picks Nike, kicks Adidas out of French football
February 22, 2008
Les Bleus, as the soccer team of France is affectionately known, have chosen sporting equipment maker Nike as the new official supplier of the team. The federal Council of the French Federation of football (FFF) announced the new contract, which runs over the 2011-2018 football seasons. Nike, an American sporting goods company, takes over from German rival Adidas, which has equipped the French team for decades.
On its web site, www.fff.fr, the FFF announced that Nike will guarantee the Federation a contribution of 320 million euros over the duration of the seven-and-a half-season contract, or an average of 42.66 million euros per season. On top of this, Nike will kick in 2.5 million euros’ worth of sporting equipment per complete season. “On the whole, the new contract will bring the Federation four times and half times the resources over the current contract”, writes an FFF official quoted on the site. Nike, Adidas and Airness of France all bid for the FFF contract when it went up for grabs.
Adidas, the big loser in this match, has sponsored France since the 1970s. Its contract runs out at the end of 2010.
Nike may be spending quadruple what Adidas did, but in terms of publicity, the deal may well be a bargain. Unlike in the US, where baseball, football and basketball all attract rabid fans and rich endorsements, no other sport in France comes close to soccer, and no sport gives a sponsor like Nike the superstar visibility le football does. Also unlike the US, whose multiple leagues and teams divide loyalties, all of France follows les Bleus. This is a great opportunity for Nike to gain a foothold in France, and the company knows it.
But beyond France, the rewards for Nike are even richer. For a month every 4 years, millions in France and around the world turn their attention to the FIFA Football World Cup, where the most skillful soccer players proudly represent their countries, in an epic contest like something between the World Series and the Olympic Games. Nike hopes to be well represented in that ultimate arena, and is offering the France team performance incentives above and beyond their generous sponsorship and free equipment, with bonuses for winning at the European level and, of course, getting into and winning the World Cup.
France’s soccer team won the World Cup for the first and only time in 1998, making national media heroes of their players in France and all over Europe. Parties went on in the streets of Paris and all over France for four days. France made it to the World Cup again in 2006, but was beaten by four-time champs Italy. The next World Cup will be held in South Africa in 2010, which will be Adidas’ last chance to sponsor a France team in the contest. Nike’s first crack to send the France team to the World Cup will be in 2014, in soccer-mad Brazil. Brazil has won the World Cup five times.
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