Dusseldorf The football World Cup did not turn out to be a fiasco for the national team. Many German companies are experiencing an economic failure parallel to the sporting failure of the DFB team. Affected are sectors that calculate with a special boom through a world event like the World Cup.
Even the omens for the tournament in the desert were bad: hosts Qatar are being criticized because human rights are being violated there and there have been fatal accidents on the World Cup construction sites. The World Cup has to take place in winter because of the heat. And this winter, it’s not just the weather that’s weighing on consumer spending, it’s above all high energy prices, inflation and fears of war.
This affects companies that rely on the economic power of football for very different reasons. The World Cup record at a glance:
17.43 million people watched the game between Germany and Costa Rica on Thursday evening at prime time. That sounds like a good rate – but the comparison is crucial. In the 2018 preliminary round, the crucial game against South Korea was watched by 25.44 million people. The market shares: 53.7 percent versus 87.4 percent.
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In Germany, the World Cup is highly controversial. The early kick-off times are also not a good prerequisite for dream quotas in this country. The situation is different internationally: There are far fewer concerns, the kick-off times in Asia, for example, fall in the prime time prime time.
>> Read also: The omissions of Hansi Flick – the early World Cup and its reasons
Shortly after the start of the tournament, the world football association Fifa published figures that the ratings even in European countries such as Great Britain or France were better than at the last World Cup in 2018 in Russia.
That doesn’t change anything about the historically poor values in Germany. In this country, only 6.21 million people watched the opening game between Qatar and Ecuador. At the opening of the 2018 World Cup, more than ten million people tuned in at a comparable time.
Players and business are disappointed by the World Cup in Qatar.
(Photo: IMAGO/Moritz Müller)
ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky also admitted that “spectator interest has so far been much more restrained”. Instead of nine million viewers as at the World Cup in Russia, only five million viewers would have tuned in to the current preliminary round games.
ZDF did not want to make any predictions about how interest in the tournament would develop without the DFB team: “We’ll have to wait and see how many viewers will follow our broadcasts in the knockout phase of the tournament,” said ZDF World Cup team boss Christoph Hamm.
ARD and ZDF broadcast most of the games. The broadcasters are said to have paid more than 214 million euros for the broadcasting rights. All 64 World Cup games are shown on Deutsche Telekom’s Magenta TV portal. When asked, they said evasively: “We will take stock at a later date.”
Meanwhile, there is interest in football: the final of the women’s European Championship this summer was watched by an average of 17.897 million people – a market share of 64.8 percent.
Sporting goods manufacturer: Adidas benefits from international business
There is also a big difference between German and international business at Adidas. The sporting goods manufacturer draws a mixed conclusion: “As much as we are affected by the departure in Germany, we benefit from the international enthusiasm in Qatar,” says the group, which supports FIFA as one of seven global partners.
The Dax group expects sales of almost 400 million euros from the World Cup and wants to hold on to it even after the DFB-Elf have left. Because Adidas is not only the outfitter of the German national team, a total of seven teams in the dress of the Herzogenaurach took part in the tournament. There are only two left in the round of 16, the German group opponents Spain and Japan.
The sporting goods manufacturer is satisfied with the international business.
(Photo: IMAGO/MIS)
In the football sector, sales grew by 30 percent in the first three quarters of 2022 compared to the same period the year before. “Compared to the 2018 World Cup, we are seeing stronger demand,” says Herzogenaurach. At that time, a total of eight million jerseys and ten million of the official World Cup balls were sold.
Adidas sells particularly well in countries outside of Europe. There is currently high demand for jerseys and other football products in Japan, South America and Qatar. That doesn’t seem to be the case in Germany: Since Friday, Adidas has been selling the jerseys of the German team at a 50 percent discount. Such a sale is common.
Trade: Disillusioned at last
The trade, however, is finally disillusioned with the tournament. “The early end of the German national team brings an already difficult World Cup business to an early end for retailers,” says the German Trade Association. “Without the German team, experience has shown that interest in fan merchandise and other World Cup items will drop rapidly.”
In any case, supermarkets like Rewe had expected that the World Cup would “encounter comparably less interest than previous major tournaments”. According to the Cologne supermarket chain, the hoped-for effects of the World Cup on drinks and snacks, for example, are only manageable. Other dealers had not organized any special campaigns for the World Cup either. Aldi, for example, only has “a small, very selected range with football motifs”.
Rewe reports that the World Cup “is met with comparably less interest than previous major tournaments”.
(Photo: imago images/Future Image)
Rewe had publicly ended its cooperation with the German Football Association shortly before the first game of the Germans. However, this would have expired at the end of the year anyway. Rewe criticized the fact that captain Manuel Neuer, contrary to what was initially announced, did not compete with the “One Love” bandage. Fifa had threatened sanctions, the DFB gave in. The bandage should at least have been a small sign against discrimination.
>> Read more: Rewe ends cooperation with DFB prematurely – VW, Adidas and Telekom are sticking to sponsorship
Rewe then announced that it would be giving away the albums from its DFB trading card campaign, which was linked to a minimum purchase value, free of charge. The chain wanted to donate the proceeds. “A recipient of the donation has not yet been determined,” it says.
Gastronomy and breweries: Many boycott campaigns, low demand
Many restaurateurs did not show football matches on big screens this time. Under the hashtag #KeinKatarinmeinerKneipe there are a number of pubs and event locations boycotting the tournament. Even the 20 largest German cities do not organize public viewing.
Pub landlady Rosel Jungfer from Berlin-Neukölln showed the games: “Financially, we couldn’t afford a boycott after two years of the Corona crisis.” If she shows World Cup games, the landlady sells twice as much beer as normal.
Many restaurateurs do not show the football games. Those who have transferred speak of weak business.
(Photo: dpa)
The end of the German team changes little. “Fans of all nationalities come to us to watch football and drink beer,” says the restaurateur. However, the favorite corner pub of Hertha BSC Berlin fans has significantly fewer guests than in previous tournaments.
“Otherwise we always have the booth packed. Because of the cold weather, our outdoor business is cancelled. And many guests have to save in times of inflation,” reports Jungfer.
Overall, the catering industry had not hoped for any major additional business: This is also due to the fact that the games collide with Christmas parties – an important source of income, especially after two years of the pandemic lull. Ingrid Hartges, general manager of the Dehoga industry association, consoles herself with the increasing demand for Christmas parties, even if the level before the corona crisis has not yet been reached.
Hartges says: “Of course, leaving is bitter – for the players as well as for our companies, which have invested in transmission options for community cheering.”
Breweries: No special impulses from the World Cup
Normally, up to one million hectoliters more beer is drunk at a World Cup in this country – that means one percent more annual sales for the brewing industry. But from the start, the brewers had not expected any impetus from the event in the cold winter.
“You have to look at it very soberly,” said Holger Eichele, General Manager of the German Brewers’ Association, before the start of the World Cup. Broadcasts of tournament games attract more visitors in the summer months, especially in outdoor catering. Many breweries like Veltins had therefore not even started any special campaigns for the current Winter World Cup.
More: Controversial World Cup in Qatar: How Adidas, Coca-Cola or McDonald’s justify their sponsorship