always wanted to do this. i’ll do this for the last world cup sometime soon. i like looking at sponsorship and how it permeates everything, not just in football.
Rank Sponsor Pld W D L GD Pts
1 Nike 38 28 5 5 56 89
2 Adidas 38 24 11 3 40 83
3 Adidas 38 20 8 10 30 68
4 Nike 38 19 11 8 28 68
5 Puma 38 17 9 12 3 60
6 Umbro 38 15 13 10 16 58
7 Reebok 38 16 8 14 -5 56
8 Puma 38 16 7 15 5 55
9 Jako 38 14 12 12 3 54
10 Lonsdale 38 15 7 16 -2 52
11 Hummel 38 11 17 10 2 50
12 Errea 38 12 10 16 -5 46
13 Adidas 38 11 10 17 -9 43
14 Reebok 38 11 9 18 -15 42
15 Reebok 38 12 5 21 -24 41
16 Airness 38 8 15 15 -22 39
17 JJB 38 10 8 20 -22 38
18 Le Coq Sportif 38 10 8 20 -23 38
19 Joma 38 8 10 20 -26 34
20 Diadora 38 5 13 20 -30 28
Teams Points per match
Nike 2 2.07
Adidas 3 1.70
Umbro 1 1.53
Puma 2 1.51
Jako 1 1.42
Lonsdale 1 1.37
Hummel 1 1.32
Reebok 3 1.22
Errea 1 1.21
Airness 1 1.03
JJB 1 1.00
Le Coq Sportif 1 1.00
Joma 1 0.89
Diadora 1 0.74
i suppose the moral of the story is, wear nike or adidas. (ok, maybe it’s not a causative relationship–most likely the kit sponsors go to the most successful teams and not the other way around.) right. also i suspect my beloved manchester city got dumped by reebok because they were bringing their performance down, hahaha. and my london side (is it sacrilege to support another “backup” side besides your favorite?) has the weirdest kit sponsor ever.
someday i will finish this across many leagues or years, then we’ll really know what to wear if we want to win trophies.
UPDATE, i just finished the world cup, i have an excel sheet that i might post soon. however, suffice it to say, again, in general, you should wear nike or adidas, though a puma team did win the competition. some highlights:
- puma sponsored more teams (12), but fewer puma teams (3) reached the second round compared to adidas teams (5 of 6) or nike teams (5 of 8).
- adidas and nike continued to dominate the competition in subsequent rounds, making up over half the field in each round until the final (QF: adidas 3, nike 2, puma, lotto, umbro 1; SF: adidas 2, nike 1, puma 1)
- adidas and puma contested the final, in a weird parallel of the lives of the companies’ founders, i suppose.
- i was not the first one to do this, forbes magazine did this last summer when the competition was ongoing.