Being the most popular sport worldwide, football is clearly one of adidas’ key strategic priorities. For over 70 years, adidas has led all major developments in boot, ball and apparel technologies. This dedication to the sport and its close relationships with athletes and teams enabled adidas to become an integral part of the history, the present and the future of football.
Building on its success around major sporting events, adidas is the global leader in football. It is the official supplier of the most important football tournaments in the world, such as the FIFA World Cup™, the UEFA European Championship, the UEFA Champions League & Major League Soccer. adidas also sponsors some of the world’s top clubs including Real Madrid, Manchester United, Arsenal, FC Bayern Munich & Juventus, as well as top Federations such as Germany (DFB), Spain (RFEF), Belgium (RBFA), Argentina (AFA), Japan (JFA) & (as of January 2023) Italy (FIGC). adidas is also partner to some of the best athletes in the game including Leo Messi, Mohamed Salah, Paulo Dybala, Karim Benzema, Catarina Macario, Jude Bellingham, Vivianne Miedema, Trinity Rodman, Jennifer Hermoso, Serge Gnabry, Pedri, Joao Felix, Lindsey Horan & Wendie Renard.
The relationship between FIFA and adidas dates back more than 50 years. Since 1970, adidas has been supplying the official match ball for all FIFA World Cup™ matches. It goes without saying that for every FIFA World Cup™, adidas designers and developers aim at devising the perfect ball by combining innovative technology and exciting and unique design to make the Official Match Ball the true icon of every FIFA World Cup™.
Among the adidas line of legendary balls were the Tango (1982), the first ball to successfully combine leather and polyurethane, the Azteca (1986), the first fully synthetic ball, the Questra (1994), the polyurethane foam-based ball, the Tricolore (1998) which introduced a syntactic foam layer and the +Teamgeist (2006) that has set new standards with its innovative and highly iconic design and panel-technology.
Besides the FIFA World Cup™, adidas is also involved in all other FIFA events, for instance the FIFA Women’s World Cup, FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019, the FIFA U-20 and U-17 World Cups for women and men as well as the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and FIFA Futsal World Cup to name just a few. At all these events, FIFA officials, referees, volunteers and the entire Youth Programme (player escort, ball crew, flag bearers) wear adidas products from head to toe.
Fully in line with FIFA’s mission 'Develop the game, touch the world, build a better future', adidas is also actively contributing by providing product for numerous development courses and CSR initiatives around the world, including the adidas Football Collective.
For more information on adidas and its products please visit: https://www.adidas.co.uk/football or join the conversation at on @adidasfootball on Twitter and Instagram
