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Theo Zwanziger: “I can understand every fan”

Photo: Michael Probst / AP

Theo Zwanziger, the former president of the German Football Association, defended the German Football Association's (DFB) move to the US company Nike as its future supplier. “I can understand every fan who is outraged,” Zwanziger told “Zeit”. "But the DFB had no other choice, both economically and legally."

Even during his presidency, Nike offered five times as much money as Adidas, Zwanziger reported in the “Zeit” interview. »We said yes, even though we would still have achieved significantly more with Nike. Adidas was difficult to question at the DFB at the time.

Former national players who were on Adidas' payroll advertised for the German company at the time, said Zwanziger. "Hypocrisy has always been involved in the discussion about the value of tradition."

Most recently, DFB treasurer Stephan Grunwald also described the decision as having no alternative. The offers from Nike and Adidas were so far apart "that we actually had no choice," he told Capital.

Did Adidas no longer want it?

According to the former DFB boss, the German sporting goods manufacturer has recently stopped trying so hard to sign a new contract. "My impression is that Adidas no longer really wanted it, at least not at any price," Zwanziger told "Zeit."

The planned change of the supplier from Adidas to Nike had previously caused great criticism - also in federal politics. The Green Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck publicly attested to the deal's lack of "local patriotism." Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wrote on X: “Adidas should no longer be the national jersey in football? A US company instead? I think it's a wrong decision where commerce is destroying a tradition and a piece of home." Hesse's Prime Minister Boris Rhein, in turn, criticized: "The world champion wears Adidas and not some American fantasy brand," he said.

Zwanziger rejected the politicians' strong criticism in the interview: "Unfortunately, the way politicians are behaving is once again sensationalism. Politicians comment on decisions made by an independent association whose economic and legal necessity they cannot assess.«

Apr