In the first international merchandising contract of the kind signed by UEFA, Intersport will be the UEFA Euro 2008 Official Sports Shop for Licensed Products. It means that retailers affiliated with Intersport will have the exclusive right to set up a store or a shop-in-shop with the Euro 2008 logo and mascot offering Euro 2008 licensed products during the European football championships. Under the contract, Intersport will also act as a non-exclusive licensee for clothing, balls and other products featuring the Euro 2008 mascot.
Important football countries such as Germany, France, Holland, Greece and Sweden are covered by the agreement. Italy and UK are not covered, at least for the time being. For Spain and Turkey, negotiations between Intersport International Corp. and UEFA are still in process.. The international retail organization, which federates more than 4,800 sporting goods stores operating in all the major European countries except Portugal and the Baltic states, has guaranteed for the moment that at least 800 Intersport doors across Europe will have a dedicated area to sell the range of licensed products.

In each of two countries that will host the championships, Austria and Switzerland, more than 100 Intersport shops will have such an area from the end of 2007, but Intersport retailers in the eight host cities will start featuring the product range as of next June. Additionally Intersport has the exclusive right to carry out on-site retail sales in the eight stadia and in the UEFA Fan Parks planned for the event.

Intersport has already begun intense discussions with Adidas, Nike and Puma about special joint product and marketing initiatives for the Euro 2008 championships. In a strategy that has proven beneficial for all the parties involved, it has been working closely with all three brands in football lately, striking special partnerships with Nike for the Euro 2004 tournament and with Adidas for this year’s FIFA World Cup.

The deal with UEFA, whose financial terms could not be determined, will certainly reinforce Intersport’s leadership in the football sector. Sales of football products by the affiliated retailers will grow by an estimated 39 percent to around €765 million (including VAT) this year, or more than the market, following a strong push by the whole store network in connection with the World Cup. Intersport executives claim that Intersport has a stake of about 25 percent in the overall football market in Europe, including replicas, and more than 30 percent when it comes to performance items.

Intersport wants to reinforce its position in team sports generally. For this purpose, the retail organization has also signed an exclusive agreement with the International Handball Federation that will cover three world men’s handball championships through the year 2013. Until now Intersport has only sponsored individual handball events, including the European Women’s Handball Championships taking place in Sweden this week.

The new deal with the IHF will start with the world men’s handball tournament kicking off in Berlin next Jan. 19. As the contract gives Intersport exclusive rights to set up a shop in the stadia where the international competitions are held, Intersport is taking issue against Karstadt, which has publicized its intention to set up such a store under its own contract with the German Handball Federation.