Puma beats Adidas, Nike with Italy's soccer trophy
By Ulf Laessing
July 10, 2006
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German sports goods firm Puma sponsored a soccer World Cup winner for the first time when its top team Italy beat rival Adidas's partner France, giving a boost to sales prospects for replica shirts.
The stakes were high in the competition, with the industry spending millions of euros in sponsoring teams to bolster brands and lift sales of products such as jerseys and soccer boots.
Italy beat France in the final on Sunday in a penalty shootout.
In the past, industry giants Adidas and Nike dominated final matches. Nike's top partner Brazil beat Germany, another Adidas team, in 2002 after France won against Brazil in 1998.
Nike saw sales of Brazil shirts surging after the nation became World Cup champion four years ago, while Adidas's Greece jerseys were sold out for days after the country won the European Championships in 2004.
Puma was top supplier at the start of this World Cup, but except for Italy, its 12 teams -- mostly Asian and African -- dropped out early.
Last week, the firm said sales of soccer products could have risen 40 percent in the first half of 2006, compared with a year ago, thanks to the event.
Adidas, which claims to be global market leader for soccer boots, had pinned hopes on its two top teams France and Germany, but both were beaten by Italy in the tournament.
A spokesman for Adidas, which also provided the match balls and kits for referees, reiterated on Monday it expected to sell more than 3 million jerseys this year.
The largest chunk would come from more than 1.5 million German shirts, in addition to some 500,000 from France and 300,000 from Argentina, its third major sponsorship partner.
U.S. firm Nike had bad luck this time when its top partner Brazil was beaten by France in the quarter final. Its last team in the tournament, Portugal, lost to Germany in the third place playoff.
Industry sources say a deal with a top nation costs a double-digit million euro amount annually, while small teams such as Trinidad & Tobago are almost free.
Teams underperforming risk losing their contracts. Adidas ended its cooperation with Saudi Arabia after it dropped out early in 2002 and suffered an embarrassing 8-0 defeat to Germany.
With 10 African teams under contract, Puma looks well positioned for the next World Cup in South Africa in 2010. The host nation is sponsored by Adidas.
