Objectively speaking, the biggest problem in qualifying for this World Cup is not the quarter-finals, but in the previous group knockout rounds, China, Kuwait, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, China. Only one out of four could be selected. The Chinese team was the only one.
The most dangerous thing is that when we get to the quarter-finals, China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Uzbekistan will become two out of four, and things will become much easier.
Therefore, after the Chinese team successfully qualified from the group, the prospect that the Chinese team will compete in the World Cup again became increasingly clear. The Chinese national team's competition became more and more attractive. With almost the entire nation paying attention, the four years
The series of business "miracles" achieved by the former Milu national team began to continuously inspire and stimulate the nerves of businessmen.
The business development department of the Chinese Football Association began to be crowded with people.
And when they defeated Saudi Arabia in the group stage on March 30 this year, and won three consecutive victories, almost stepping on the qualifying threshold, the most cautious and conservative companies could no longer hold back. Among them, jersey advertising, stadium advertising, and general
Commercial advertisements are coming in droves, and the most core of them is sneaker advertisements!
Nike and Adidas are in a confrontation, refusing to give in to each other.
Two years ago, when the 81 National Olympics competed overseas, something very unpleasant happened due to a problem with sneakers. At that time, the sponsor of the Olympic team was Adidas, and the sponsor of some players was Nike. This made the players very embarrassed. They did not wear the national team.
The sponsor's sneakers will face disciplinary penalties from the national team; wearing the national team's sneakers will face penalties such as money deductions from the sponsor.
Later, the Football Association came forward personally and worked on all aspects to suppress it.
Similarly, the current national team is also facing this problem. For example, Zheng Zhi wears Nike and Li Weifeng wears Reebok. This is all troublesome. Because when the Chinese team returned from the World Cup two years ago, Adidas signed a one-year contract with the Football Association.
A US$10 million sponsorship agreement signed with the entire Chinese national football team.
Now comes the problem. The Chinese team hopes to participate in the World Cup for the second time, and there are more than 10 overseas players in the team, which is different from the last three or four overseas players. And with Wang
The collective rise of Ai, Bai Guanghai, Luo Tongliang, Chen Yang and other new generation players are far stronger than the previous generation in terms of combat effectiveness.
In other words, in next year’s World Cup, the Chinese team is likely to create historic results again. And every additional game played in the World Cup means that the advertising brand it endorses will be on screen for 90 more minutes. This market is not just
China or the world.
Therefore, in March, when China won three out of three games and the qualification was very bright, Adidas, Nike, Anta, Reebok, Xtep, Li Ning, etc. were all eyeing the men's football team. Since Adidas had a previous contract, other brands set their sights.
Targeting some of its contracted players and requiring them to wear endorsed sneakers during games, in order to gain leverage against Adidas.
Of course Adi didn't do it, and he had been on guard against this move for a long time. As a result, the two sides were at loggerheads, and Zheng Zhi, Li Weifeng and others were in a dilemma. Because when they signed the contract, not only were there liquidated damages, but the amount of liquidated damages was also huge.
It’s huge. For example, Zheng Zhi’s annual endorsement fee is only a few hundred thousand, but the liquidated damages are as high as eight million!
It is pitiful to say that Zheng Zhi, the captain of the Chinese national team, signed with the international giant Nike. The endorsement fee in the first year was only 500,000 yuan, which increased by 50,000 yuan a year, with a maximum of 850,000 yuan. In the same year as Zheng Zhi, he signed with the NBA.
The new star LeBron James is worth US$90 million in seven years, which is a hundred times worse. In other words, Nike is just throwing US$70,000 to 80,000 US dollars in change to Zheng Zhi, because they are interested in the growth of the Chinese market, but at the moment
He was not taken seriously at all. The salary of his Asia manager was only three million US dollars a year.
The main reason is that Chinese people are very poor these days. The monthly salary of the middle and lower class of society is only a few hundred yuan, and a pair of their shoes costs more than a thousand yuan. Therefore, very few people can buy shoes. Let alone these two, even Wang Ai will not sell them.
Shoes. In short, despite the fact that Chinese football has begun to become professional these days, in terms of market maturity and legal perfection, it is still far behind the big foreign brands.
Wang Ai does not have this problem. He, Bai Guanghai, Luo Tongliang or the entire Tubingen system, as long as they have not signed a contract in China, will all sign with Adidas in Germany. Wang Ai has told them: do as the Romans do. If Chinese football wants to win in Germany
To take root in Germany, localization is a must. We cannot localize race and nationality, but we must move closer to Germany in terms of culture and business.
Of course, it is important that Adidas also has the willingness to do this. It invested in Wang Ai early because it saw Wang Ai's future growth. Once Wang Ai becomes big in the national team, Adidas will take advantage of the situation and secure its position in China.
Position, this is called mutual benefit and win-win.
Compared to Adidas, Wang Ai has no feelings for Nike. It’s not that Nike is not good, but that football is not good in the United States, but football is too good in Europe. Chinese football is a weak one, so it has to listen to the strong ones. Of course, if Adidas dares to take
Wang Ai dared to use Nike to show off to them. In fact, the Chinese Football Association was the same. The reason why it allowed its players to sign with Nike and Reebok was because they wanted to sit on the fence and bid on both sides.
Before this big turmoil came, the Football Association was a little restless. Adidas and Nike were at odds with each other. They didn't care about the difficulties of individual members of the national team. What they cared about was fighting for the Chinese market, so the two sides were determined not to give in. Finally, the Chinese Football Association found
Wang Ai, who returned to Spain at that time, came forward and asked Wang Ai to accompany the Football Association officials to the Adidas headquarters in Nuremberg for negotiations.
Since Adidas is planning to sign a five-year endorsement contract with Wang Ai in the summer of 2005, with a total value of no less than 80 million euros, Wang Ai is moving from the second camp to the first camp in the Adidas spokesperson sequence.
, therefore Adi headquarters attaches great importance to Wang Ai’s visit.
In other words, Wang Ai alone is more expensive than the Chinese national team together. Therefore, Wang Ai's arrival weighs much more than the Football Association officials.
After friendly negotiations, proposed by Wang Ai, Adidas agreed: It is not mandatory for national team members to change partners, but Adidas’ bonus to the national team, that is, a sponsorship of 10 million U.S. dollars a year and subsequent competition bonuses, totaling five
About one million, 10% of which is the player's personal bonus, and players who endorse other brands will not have the right to share it.
At Wang Ai's suggestion, Adidas also launched a commemorative sneaker for the Chinese national football team's 2006 World Cup qualification. The appearance is very special. It was inspired by the Marshal Stadium and has a yellow and black tiger skin pattern. In order to unify the appearance, Adidas
They also secretly manufactured sneaker stickers and put them on other brands of sneakers during competitions, so as not to block their trademarks, but the appearance would look the same as advertised by Adidas, thereby exploiting legal loopholes.
