(29 June 2006 5:00 pm)

MUMBAI: adidas, the official sponsor of the 2006 Fifa World Cup, has been a winner all the way this football season. "Even before the games end, adidas is already a clear World Cup winner. We exceeded all of our football and business goals for the World Cup," said adidas AG CEO and chairman Herbert Hainer in summing up adidas' role as official sponsor, supplier and licensee of the 2006 Fifa World Cup.

The company has achieved record football sales and has succeeded in further expanding its global football market leadership position.

For adidas, the 2006 Fifa World Cup has proven to be a great commercial success with record football sales of over 1.2 billion euros, up more than 30 per cent from 2005. A record three million replica jerseys were sold, which included 1.5 million jerseys of the German national team. In comparison, adidas sold 1.5 million federation jerseys and 250,000 German jerseys at the last World Cup in 2002.

"One trend confirmed at this year's World Cup is that the fans are going to the games in the jersey of their team. Our products are scoring with consumers, and this success is translating into market share gains," added Hainer.

In the first quarter of 2006, adidas led the European market with a share of 37 per cent, the US market with a 46 per cent share and the German market with 51 per cent, according to independent market research.

In addition, over one million pairs of +Predator Absolute football boots and 750,000 +F50 TUNIT football boots were sold. Over 15 million +Teamgeist footballs, in the design of the Match Ball of the 2006 Fifa World Cup, have been sold worldwide, a record that more than doubles the previous record of six million for the adidas Fevernova, the Match Ball of the 2002 Fifa World Cup.

adidas enjoys successful partnerships with some of the strongest federations, clubs and players around the world. National federations such as Germany, Argentina, France, Spain, Denmark, Greece, Japan, South Africa and prominent clubs such as FC Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, AC Milan and as of the 2006/2007 season Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC endorse adidas products.

Additionally, individual players like Michael Ballack, David Beckham, Raúl, Juan Román Riquelme, Steven Gerrard and Zinédine Zidane represent their respective clubs wearing adidas football equipment.

Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the adidas Group generates sales of about € 9.5 billion (2005).