adidas to supply European Qualifiers balls

UEFA and adidas today announced an expansion of their partnership to include the European Qualifiers running from 2014 to 2017.

With this announcement, adidas – which is already an official partner of UEFA EURO 2016 in France – now acquires the right to be the official match ball supplier of the European Qualifiers for the forthcoming three years. The rights relate to the qualifying matches for UEFA EURO 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, underlining adidas's commitment to, and involvement in, all UEFA's competitions.

Commenting on the partnership agreement, Guy-Laurent Epstein, marketing director of UEFA Events SA, said: "As a long-standing partner of UEFA, whose equipment has been tried and tested for decades across the biggest stages in football, adidas is the ideal company to have on board as the official ball supplier for the European Qualifiers. We look forward to them being at the heart of the action once the matches kick off in September this year."

Claus-Peter Mayer, vice-president global sports marketing football at adidas, said: "adidas are committed to the development of global football and are delighted to be reaffirming our presence across the European national-team game by becoming the official match ball supplier for the European Qualifiers. 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."

This rights package offered by UEFA was made possible by the recent centralisation of commercial rights. Through the new Week of Football concept, qualifying matches will be spread over several days, giving fans the opportunity to watch more games than ever before. The endorsement of such an established global brand serves to confirm the potential of this initiative.

Following the announcements of Carlsberg, SOCAR and Continental as official partners, adidas joins the programme as official ball supplier. With the European Qualifiers beginning in September, UEFA can expect to see other commercial partners coming on board in the coming months.