In 2014, German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel published excerpts from an Adidas player endorsement contract that somehow came to be in their possession. The deal was with an unnamed Bayern Munich (soccer team) player who earned €400,000 ($462,620) in 2011 for wearing the Adidas logo. The contract showed that Adidas reserved the right to prematurely cancel the arrangement if the player was convicted of drug possession, was found wearing a competitor’s sports apparel, was found guilty of a crime, or if it was discovered that he belonged to “any organization or association which represents the principles of L. Ron Hubbard.” According to Adidas, Scientology and other such unconstitutional organizations are incompatible with their brand. The company indicated that this is part of its standard text in contracts. Since it’s hard to know just how many player endorsement contracts include a similar clause, this may have something to do with the fact that the German government does not recognize Scientology as a religion. One thing is certain: you won’t be seeing Tom Cruise at Allianz Arena, which is where Bayern Munich plays most of their games.
