The chief executive of Adidas has admitted that the German sports equipment company has made mistakes and not performed as well as senior executives had hoped.

Herbert Hainer said the environment "had served up a constant stream of challenges", including cost pressures and a "weaker" European market.

Adidas issued a profit warning in September after sharp falls in emerging market currencies along with weakness in the US golf market.

“After three years, we are not where we thought we would be in terms of the numbers,” said Mr Hainer . “And to be fair and frank, we have also made a few mistakes.”

Net sales in the first nine months of the year were just over €11 billion, down from €11.5 billion in the same period of 2012. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013