Here's Why the Official Nations League Ball Wasn't Used in England's Game Tonight
England made its debut in the newly formed UEFA Nations League tonight against Spain at Wembley.
Earlier this month, UEFA had unveiled a dedicated Adidas ball to be used in the Nations League, but England against Spain saw a generic Nike model used instead. Here's why.
Although the Nations League competition is run by UEFA, there is no centralized marketing of image rights for the competition, as is the case in the Champions League for example. Therefore, it's up to decide for each home team to negotiate the best deals - and in the case of England it has a deal with Nike to supply kits and gear.
Subsequently, the Nations League ball will only be used in games hosted by Adidas-sponsored teams. Case in point, Germany's game with France earlier this week.
This is also the reason you'll see different sponsors for the different teams, whereas in the Champions League it's an exclusive selection of worldwide partners that are featured on the ad hoardings.
Should the Nations League establish itself as an important national team competition in the future we might see this change but for now we think UEFA made the right move since there probably wasn't a whole lot of interest from sponsors.
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