Germany: Fanatics (USA) extends as an official merchandise distributor of the DFB until 2026

Fanatics, an American manufacturer and distributor of licensed sports products, has extended its licensing agreement with the Deutscher Fussball Bund and will continue to be the body's official merchandise distributor until the 2026 World Cup, announced the German Football Association on 07/03/2023. The agreement covers Euro 2024 in Germany.

The American company has been involved with the DFB since January 2019. As part of the renewed and expanded agreement, Fanatics will "retain exclusive global eCommerce rights with the DFB and run the official DFB-Fanshop as well as running DFB on-site retail during home games and DFB-Pokal finals. Fanatics now has the rights to manufacture, distribute and license to third parties an expanded range of DFB-branded fan merchandise across a broad range of product categories, such as headwear, retro fanwear, hard goods, homeware, consumer electronics, stationary and more," said the body.

Fanatics is now valued at $31bn (€29.4bn) following a fundraising of around $700m (€665.2m) by the Californian investment firm Clearlake Capital, which is also part…