NPD Group, the international market research company, has studied the market for football-related merchandise and released the results in time for the Euro 2008. It looked at 2006, when the World Cup was held in Germany, and compared sales of clothes and equipment with those of 2005 and 2007. That year, football-related sales in Europe, including Eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia, were estimated at a minimum of €4.7 billion.
The market in the U.K. was the largest, with a total of €1,778 million. In Western Europe, Germany followed at €1,017 million; then Italy with €511 million; France with €433 million; and Spain, at €294 million. The rest of Europe brought in €1,189 million. All figures are described as being accurate give or take 10 percent.
Researching France specifically, NPD found that in an average year when there was not a major football event, about 900,000 official club shirts were sold. However, in 2006 that number jumped by nearly 45 percent to 1,300,000. Homing in on the dates of the World Cup the results are clearer. In the second quarter of 2006 – the period leading up to and including the start of the matches – sales of shirts were almost four times what they were for the same period in 2005, and ball sales were up by about 58 percent.
In Germany, where the World Cup took place, the effects were strong as well. Ball sales jumped by 34 percent in 2006 compared with 2005, and in 2007 returned almost to the 2005 level. In France, ball sales dropped by 7 percent in 2007.
NPD also broke out the sale of football cleats, though the group noted that the «booster effect» of the World Cup was not as strong in that category, as people who play serious football replace their shoes when they need new ones, not when there is a large event. Nonetheless, in France sales of cleats went up by 16 percent in 2006 compared with the year before, and in 2007 went down by 8 percent from the year of the championship. In Germany, cleat sales went down by 6 percent in 2007.
But figures from 2008 and the Euro Cup will not necessarily be parallel, warns Renaud Vaschalde, the French expert in the sports sector at NPD. He points out that the U.K., the largest market in Europe for football-related articles, is not in the competition, so sales there may not see a jump. The host countries, Switzerland and Austria, are much smaller markets than Germany, and their national teams are not favorites to win. And finally, he notes that the World Cup and the Euro alternate every two years, and someone who bought a team shirt for the World Cup may not need or want another one only two years later.
Nevertheless, the three-week Euro 2008 that started on Saturday has sportswear manufacturers excited. The chief executive of Adidas, Herbert Hainer, told the German Stern magazine that the company is aiming to sell 1 million German national football team shirts during the event. During Euro 2006, the three stripes sold 1.5 million such kits.
And the CEO of Intersport, Klaus Jost, told Reuters that the German group forecasts growth of 30 percent in football-related items this year, though it will be satisfied with reaching 70-80 percent of that goal. During the 2006 tournament, the retailer sold 300,000 Adidas soccer balls and German national team T-shirts.
