December 17 – Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer has raised a questionmark over his company’s future sponsorship of FIFA saying that of they are to continue then the governing body’s reform has to be robust and real.
Adidas has been one of the top level sponsors of FIFA for over four decades, but speaking to German business paper Handelsblatt on Tuesday, Hainer cast doubt on the future of the relationship whilst insisting that, “You cannot make us responsible for the criminal machinations of the FIFA officials.”
Speaking at Adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Hainer said: “If FIFA manages to reform itself, and since they are in my opinion, on a good path, we will continue.” Otherwise he added we will have to “think about what the alternatives are.”
The current contract between Adidas and FIFA runs until 2030.
Adidas was the last of the FIFA sponsors to call for major reform but unlike the other sponsors, adidas’ core business is intrinsically linked with supplying football with the World Cup being a significant driver of its revenues. Hainer has recently called for reforms, including term and age limits for the FIFA president, to be brought in.
Adidas is also a major sponsor of the German Football Association (DFB) which has also been hit by a scandal over alleged buying of the 2006 World Cup, in which former Adidas chief Robert Louis-Dreyfus has been implicated.
On this subject Hainer was adamant, “We have nothing to reproach ourselves for, we have checked all contracts with the DFB and allowed them to be checked.”
Meanwhile, on the commercial front, Hainer predicted double-digit growth for Adidas in 2016 and said that he had not given up on the goal of overtaking Nike as market leader.
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