Adidas has caved in to the demands of German football players who threatened to revolt unless they were given the right to choose their own footwear when playing for the national side. In exchange, Adidas has obtained an extension of its deal with the German football federation (DFB) until 2014.
The compromise was reached just before the game between Germany and the Republic of Ireland last Saturday, enabling several players to appear on the pitch with brands other than Adidas. Until then the deal between Adidas and the DFB had forced all the team members to play in Adidas boots, regardless of their personal contracts with other brands.
Several players had been complaining that the all-encompassing agreement with Adidas was hurtful for their feet, because they played with other boots during the season. The concerns were put forward by the players’ 4-strong representative committee, composed of Miroslav Klose, Jens Lehmann, Thorsten Frings and Bernd Schneider. They were echoed by Michael Ballack, the German icon of the Three Stripes.
The players went out of their way to stress that the quality of Adidas’ footwear was beyond dispute and that their demands were not about money. However, others pointed out that the former deal with the DFB reduced the marketing value of German players, because other brands could not use them during international games.
Incidentally, the German team that played at this year’s World Cup was managed by highly principled men who were not close to Adidas. As a player, the team’s coach, Jürgen Klinsmann, became one of the very few exceptions in German football as he was allowed to wear a brand other than his team’s house brand. While Bayern Munich’s players were all meant to wear Adidas, he forced a compromise allowing him to wear Reebok.
Germany was one of the last remaining countries where national players had not yet stood up for the right to pick their own footwear. The only two other countries where this arrangement is still in place are China, which is endorsing Adidas, and Austria, which has been with Puma for several decades. As they are preparing to host the 2008 European Championships, together with the Swiss, there’s a fair chance that the Austrian players will take inspiration from the proceedings in the DFB’s corridors.
