Nike quickly came up with designs for jerseys for the Chinese men's national football team last week, after the China Football Association (CFA) ended a partnership that had lasted about three decades with Adidas at the close of the year. Nike reportedly inked a contract worth 100 million yuan (€14m-$16m) per year to become the national team's kit supplier until 2026. The deal remained under the radar until the CFA confirmed a few days ago that the shirts worn by the team at the Asian Cup this month, held in Australia, would be made by Nike.
The Chinese national team's performance has been underwhelming so far. It only qualified for the Fifa World Cup once, in 2002, and then failed to win a single game – or even to score a goal. However, there are hopes that Chinese football could improve in the coming years as the government has taken several comprehensive measures to increase football participation among Chinese youth.
The China Daily reported last November that the government wants to make football compulsory at an increasing number of schools and the Chinese School Football Program is to establish football specialties at 20,000 primary and secondary schools by 2017. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has described himself as a football fan and stated that he dreamed of China hosting the football World Cup one day.
Nike's deal with the CFA will add to its exposure in Chinese football, where the Swoosh is already worn by all teams in the Super League. Team sports is one of the sports categories covered in our detailed market research report on the Chinese sports market, released this week.
