German sportswear and equipment company Adidas has expanded its partnership with Uefa to become the official match ball supplier for international qualifying matches played under the jurisdiction of European football’s governing body until 2017.
Adidas is already an official partner of the Uefa Euro 2016 national team tournament in France and the new three-year deal relates to preliminary matches for that competition and the 2018 Fifa World Cup.
The agreement, brokered by Uefa’s marketing partner CAA Eleven, will see Adidas benefit from the organisation’s new ‘Week of Football’ concept, where qualifying matches are to be spread across several days during the match week as opposed to the current Friday and Tuesday slots.
Carlsberg, Socar and Continental are already official partners under the programme, which is set to increase visibility for Uefa’s major sponsors. The qualifying matches for Euro 2016 begin in September this year.
Claus-Peter Mayer, vice-president of global sports marketing for football at Adidas, said: “With the new move towards centralisation, we are delighted that our world class products will be at the heart of the competition from day one.”