The European football market declined steeply to about €4.270 billion in 2007, a fall of 13 percent compared with the previous year, according to the latest research by NPD Group. The decline was chiefly attributed to the fact that there wasn’t any major international tournament to stimulate replica sales in 2007, unlike 2006 with the World Cup, and that fashion moved away from football-inspired sneakers.
Calculated at retail level including VAT, the figures include technical football boots as well as football-inspired sneakers; a wide range of sports apparel used for football; football replica and light equipment. They cover 34 countries, including all of Eastern Europe and Russia, but not Turkey.
The U.K. was still Europe’s largest football market in 2007, with estimated sales of about €1.2 billion, followed by Germany with €795 million. France came in third with football sales of €416 million, ahead of Italy with €327 million and Spain with €305 million. The rest of Europe contributed the remaining €1.227 billion. While sales of replica and football lifestyle products declined, NPD points out that football participation did not drop.
It’s too early to tell how the 2008 European Championships have impacted the whole European market. The tournament has apparently failed to lift sales of football boots in the U.K., France and Germany, but they increased by 15 percent in Spain and by 10 percent in Italy for the first half of the year.
In France, from September 2007 until August 2008, the volume of football boot sales remained stable, but prices went down by 4 percent - enabling the three leading brands to tighten their grip on the market. Adidas, Nike and Puma accounted for no less than 73 percent of football boot sales during the period, compared with 71 percent for the same period last year, as price reductions made alternative brands and private labels less attractive, particularly in the junior business. As in some other European markets, France saw a decline of 11 percent in sales of non-cleated football boots, which make up about 36 percent of the French market.
