Politicians unanimously complain about the DFB’s departure from Adidas, write about tradition, homeland and commerce – and in doing so fail to understand the DFB’s dramatic situation.
On the surface, it’s just a matter of which global corporation will soon produce the national team’s jerseys and work commercially with the German Football Association (DFB). But many people in Germany are very emotional about the DFB’s departure from the German manufacturer Adidas to the US company Nike.
Suddenly, high-ranking politicians are using words that are usually used in other political camps. Economics Minister Robert Habeck (The Greens) would have liked “a little more local patriotism,” and Adidas and black-red-gold were “a piece of German identity.” And Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wrote of a wrong decision in which “commerce is destroying a tradition and a piece of home.”
Criticism from the Left to the CSU
Rarely does politics express itself so unanimously across parties. Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Die Linke) and CSU Bundestag member Dorothee Bär also criticized the DFB. CDU leader Friedrich Merz called the decision “unpatriotic.”
And Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) said: “The world champion wears Adidas, not some American fantasy brand. (…) I can’t imagine that the DFB can keep this up in the end.”
Martina Knief, sports show, March 21, 2024 5:32 p.m
DFB: “By far the best economic offer”
With so much pathos, a cool look at the situation makes sense. According to its own information on Thursday, the DFB accepted “by far the best economic offer” when tendering for the supplier partnership.
And in the press release he directly referred to his function as an umbrella organization. “With the 7.3 million people it represents, the DFB is a central social institution and has a unique selling point among sports associations: it supports its members financially and is not financed by them,” treasurer Stephan Grunwald is quoted as saying.
This helps to maintain football as a popular sport and to be able to offer club memberships at comparatively low fees, said Grunwald. “We are grateful to be able to look forward to an economically stable future again as an association thanks to Nike’s commitment.”
Deepest financial crisis in the association’s history
The DFB is certainly not economically stable at the moment; in fact, it is in the deepest financial crisis in its history. There are several reasons for this, starting with the sporting failure of the senior national team. Due to the weak results at the 2018 World Cup, the 2020 European Championships and the 2022 World Cup, the DFB only received 27 million euros in bonuses during this period – that is less than half of the income from the three major tournaments between 2010 and 2014.
“The association is essentially dependent on the sporting success and the economic conditions of the senior national team,” Grunwald told the WDR magazine Sport inside in October 2023. For example, income from sponsorship and marketing relating to international matches in 2021 accounted for half of the DFB’s total turnover of 400 million euros.
Possible tax evasion
In addition, two lawsuits have forced the DFB to set aside funds in the double-digit million range. One is about possibly incorrectly taxed income from perimeter advertising, the other is about the ominous payment of 6.7 million euros before the 2006 home World Cup.
The DFB deducted it as a business expense, but according to the public prosecutor’s office there was no consideration. Both processes also involve a temporary withdrawal of non-profit status, which would result in additional high costs for the DFB.
“In the best case scenario, if the DFB wins both proceedings, it could expect to receive back around 50 million euros in taxes paid including interest,” said Lars Leuschner, an expert in association law at the University of Osnabrück, to Sport inside. “In the worst case scenario, he will have to write off this sum permanently.”
DFB campus twice as expensive
There is also the new DFB campus in Frankfurt, the extensive association headquarters with offices, meeting rooms and training facilities. Both the construction costs (180 million euros) and the maintenance costs (80 million euros per year) have become twice as expensive as planned.
“Today you would no longer build the campus like we have here,” said Grunwald. He has only been DFB treasurer since March 2022 and now has to work with the decisions of his predecessors.
More than 100 million euros from Nike?
Against this background, let’s take another look at the new equipment contract: According to “Handelsblatt”, Nike is expected to pay more than 100 million euros per year, while Adidas has so far received 50 million euros per year – although there is no information as to how high the current bid was. When asked by Sportschau, the DFB did not want to comment on these figures or on criticism from politicians.
But even if the difference between the company’s bids was only a few million euros – given its financial situation, should the DFB have foregone additional income – out of tradition and “location patriotism”?
Does popular sport benefit?
As Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach likes to talk about the importance of sport for health. If the DFB lives up to its announcement that the income from the equipment contract will also benefit popular sports, Lauterbach should actually react favorably.
By the way, no one has ever asked why the successful German company Adidas apparently didn’t make a competitive offer – despite the historic crisis of the DFB, which had stood by it even when it came to competing offers for more than 70 years.