DFB poker with VW: What happens next with the main sponsor of the national team | EUROtoday

Status: 12:50 p.m | Reading time: 4 minutes

WWhenever the German national soccer team met in the latest previous to organize for worldwide matches, they most popular to take action in Frankfurt/Main. The German Football Association (DFB) campus, which price 180 million euros, is now positioned there and should be used. The A team’s entourage can not keep in a single day on the web site in Frankfurt’s Westend as a result of there are merely not sufficient beds, however no less than they practice there.

The DFB choice is in Wolfsburg earlier than the worldwide matches towards Japan on Saturday (8.45 p.m./RTL) and three days later towards France (9 p.m./ARD). However, the wonderful coaching circumstances and the excellent infrastructure usually are not the purpose why national coach Hansi Flick’s team is staying there. It primarily has to do with the headquarters of VW, the vehicle firm that has been the DFB’s jersey and main sponsor since January 1, 2019. At that point, VW changed its long-time associate Mercedes.

The contract between the affiliation and the Wolfsburg firm runs till the finish of the 2024 European Championship, i.e. in the summer season of next 12 months, and the dedication is anticipated to price round 25 million euros per 12 months. Both sides, we hear as of late, are occupied with persevering with the cooperation and are glad with the present one. They say they’re engaged on an answer. The first discussions have already taken place and extra will observe, together with as of late on the sidelines of the worldwide matches.

Crisis in the A team, the U21 and the ladies

However, the beginning place is totally different than in 2017, when the present contract was sealed. At that point, Germany was the reigning world champion and the DFB was in a very good place. The picture values ​​have been proper, the A-Team particularly was straightforward to market as a premium product. Six years have handed since then: the affiliation has been badly hit and its model has been battered. In explicit, the former flagship team, the A team, performed a serious function on this because of their elimination in the preliminary rounds of the 2018 World Cup and the 2022 World Cup in addition to their elimination in the European Championship spherical of 16 in 2021. Recently, the U21s, who have been eradicated from the European Championship preliminary rounds, and the ladies’s team joined the disaster team. The ladies additionally failed in the preliminary spherical of the World Cup.

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Things usually are not going nicely in phrases of sport and the affiliation shouldn’t be doing nicely in phrases of exterior illustration. The newest instance of this was delivered once more this worldwide match week – in the particular person of Hans-Joachim Watzke. The Vice President of the DFB described the affiliation’s deliberate reform of kids’s soccer as “incomprehensible” and the “wrong approach”. He even introduced a reform of the reform. Watzke described the deliberate modifications at the DUP Entrepreneurs’ Day in Essen as “unbelievable” and “incomprehensible to me”.

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Opinion Federal Youth Games

Hannes Wolf, the new DFB director of youth improvement, not too long ago spoke clear, but astonishing phrases throughout his presentation about the reform in youth soccer and defined intimately why it was crucial.

Now this. The extent to which these disagreements have an effect on negotiations with potential companions is an open query. But the disunity inside the affiliation is unlikely to be useful.

“Football is still a very large communication platform”

Referring purely to the sporting efficiency, VW stated that it had actually not been passable lately. “The fans know that, we know that and, above all, the DFB itself knows that. But even if these disappointments have left their mark on TV ratings or stadium attendance: football is still a very large and high-quality communication platform,” shared Gerd Voss, Director of Sports and Communications at Volkswagen AG, responded to WELT’s request – and added: “In addition to pure advertising on a content level, we have launched many social initiatives together with the DFB and its 21 regional associations: for inclusion, for the promotion of football for women, for young talent and amateur sports. This is what sets the partnership apart, it fits in perfectly with Volkswagen as a brand and is therefore also part of our football strategy “Football, that’s all of us”, which includes everyone.”

There is interest in continuing the collaboration. But it can be assumed that in the future not as much money will flow as before. When asked to what extent a large, expensive sponsorship can be communicated to employees, VW said: “Sponsorship is not an end in itself, but part of the expenditure on marketing, sales and communication. For example, it’s about getting a significantly higher media value than you put in in terms of fees. But we can not only advertise our products on this platform, but also draw attention to our commitment to society. This is positive for the company. We took our colleagues with us on these topics from the start.”

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The sporting outcomes, however particularly the discussions, will present what all of it boils right down to. “We know the value of sponsorship,” Gerd Voss concluded: “It can be measured. We at the Volkswagen Football Center have a long history of experience with such topics. In addition, we are currently undergoing a performance program that is also reducing the company’s costs and every expense is therefore being scrutinized very carefully.”