The German football league has astonished football specialists by teaming up with Derbystar as the official ball supplier for the Bundesliga and the Bundesliga 2 from the 2018/19 season and for four years, replacing Adidas. Derbystar is an established German brand that has been owned since 1991 by Select, a Danish supplier of team sports products. Adidas has been the ball supplier of the Bundesliga with its Torfabrik since 2010, when the league started to use a single model for its games, but the company said that it had decided not to pursue this relationship beyond the 2017/18 season. Established in 1968, Derbystar already appeared in Bundesliga games from the seventies through partnerships with various clubs, and in the 1979/80 season Derbystar balls were used in all matches played in the Bundesliga. Joachim Böhmer, board member at Derbystar in charge of marketing and procurement, said in a statement that the company's sales have doubled since 2010. Its new partners said they appreciated the quality of the balls and the international distribution network at Derbystar's disposal through Select. Derbystar/Select provide the official match balls in the football leagues of the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Belgium. Then again, Adidas remains the official supplier of balls for international games organized by Fifa and Uefa, the European football federation.

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