Adidas Expects Football Sales To Rise To A Record $2.7B In '14 Fuled By The World Cup

Adidas said that football sales will rise to a record €2B ($2.7B) next year, "boosted by the World Cup in Brazil," according to Julie Cruz of BLOOMBERG. Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer said, "Through the World Cup we will once again underline our leading position." Adidas said that it will start introducing new products for the World Cup in the second half of this year. The company "is one of six global marketing partners for the tournament." Adidas had football sales of more than €1.7B last year, helped by interest "surrounding the European championships held in Ukraine and Poland." Adidas faces competition from Nike, whose football sales rose to $2B in '12 from $1.8B in '11. Adidas has supplied the official match ball to all World Cup matches since '70. It sold 13 million official match balls at the last World Cup in South Africa in '10 and "expects to beat that number next year" (BLOOMBERG, 6/18).