ABSTRACT
Ambush marketing strategies are very common in football because the players are part of a team that has a group contract with an equipment manufacturer, while at the same time they have individual contracts for their shoes, often supplied by a competing manufacturer. Football clubs, national teams, American professional leagues and major sporting events have become brands in their own right. European professional sport is structured in a very different fashion from American sport. In the United States, universities train players for team sports, and then the best players turn professional. The chapter shows how the Adidas brand has carried out its internationalization process by means of sports sponsorships with clubs, federations, national teams, athletes and events: Co-branding is a rather specific term employed for the association of two true brands, whereas we speak of partnerships or sponsorships when the association is with a club or an event.
