BERLIN: The German national football team’s decision to drop Adidas as its kit supplier sparked dismay in Berlin on Friday, with the economy minister blasting the switch to US sportswear giant Nike for its lack of “patriotism”.

“I can hardly imagine the Germany shirt without the three stripes,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement sent to AFP.

“For me, Adidas and black-red-gold always belonged together,” Habeck said, describing the pairing of the company’s trademark stripes and the national flag colours as a “piece of German identity”.

With the homegrown sportswear brand and the economy both experiencing tough times, Habeck said he “would have hoped for more patriotism” from the German Football Association (DFB).

The DFB on Thursday said its partnership with Adidas -- spanning more than 70 years and four World Cup triumphs — would stop at the end of 2026.

From 2027, Germany’s footballers will wear jerseys manufactured by the sportswear giant Nike.

The shock announcement came just a few months before Germany is set to host the men’s European football championships from June.

The DFB’s decision to dump Adidas was “wrong”, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said Thursday on X, formerly Twitter.

The German team had allowed “a tradition and a piece of home” to be destroyed, Lauterbach said.

“The national team plays in three stripes — that is as clear as the ball is round and the game lasts 90 minutes”, Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder said on X.

The German FA said Thursday it understood the decision to drop Adidas was “emotional”.

“For us as an association, it is also a turning point when it is clear that a partnership mar­ked by special moments is coming to an end after more than 70 years,” the DFB said on X.

The deal with Nike, which will run through 2034, was “by far the best financial offer” on the table, the DFB said.

Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden is reported by the German daily Bild to have made a last minute effort to win over DFB bosses in Frankfurt on Wednesday, tabling a bid of between 60-65 million euros ($65-70 million) a year.

The contract with Nike is however said to be worth around 100 million euros a year, according to the Handelsblatt financial daily.

The money from the Nike deal would enable the association to fulfil its commitment to “German football and its development”, the DFB said.

The lucrative tie-up was “an important business deal at the right time”, Christoph Breuer from the Cologne-based Institute for Sports Economy and Sports Management, told AFP’s sports news subsidiary SID.

The DFB faces “financial worries” and had “no choice” but to pick the package put forward by Nike.

The DFB has come under increasing pressure as the men’s team is struggling at international competitions, something that has forced it to look for a new coach. However, it remains contractually bound to paying dismissed trainer Hansi Flick until the end of 2024.

Ambitious infrastructure projects like a new campus are also running above budget.

With Nike’s cash injection, the sports national body could “invest more in children and youth sport as well as women’s football”, Breuer said.

None of which would remedy a “bitter loss in its home market” for Adidas, which recorded its first loss in 30 years in 2023, he said.

Another messy break-up with the US artist Kanye West, who once spurned Nike for the German group, has weighed on Adidas’s activities.

The DFB tie-up is a coup for Nike, which signalled an otherwise tepid short-term outlook on Thursday.

The US group had the ability to make the German team “a global brand and make their athletes global heroes”, Nike CEO John Donahoe said.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2024