UEFA Sponsorship

sponsorship The Union of European Football Associations, popularly known as UEFA is the main European administrative body for association football and one of six continental confederations of world football's governing body FIFA. Being the head of an organization of most popular European competitions, Champions League and Europa League, UEFA has many sponsors and partners in their projects. Many sponsors are included in all other projects by UEFA such as the UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Women's Champions League and also the UEFA Youth League. This means that there is an impressive amount of money circling in these competitions as we can see in the winning prizes. Furthermore, there are many corporations and organizations that are eager to be the part of these respectable competitions. Therefore, usually, each competition has separate sponsors.

UEFA Champions League

Champions League is typically sponsored by a group of multinational corporations, while the national top leagues are most commonly sponsored by the single main sponsor. Upon the creation of the competition in 1992, it was agreed that a maximum number of sponsors would be eight. In addition, it was concluded that each corporation would be allowed advertising space of four advertising boards around the pitch, as well as logo placement during the pre- and post-match interviews. The companies were also allowed to place their logo on a certain number of tickets to each match. Furthermore, it was agreed that the tournament sponsors should have priority on television advertisements during matches which ensured the tournament's main sponsors a maximum exposure.

From the 2012–13 knockout phase, UEFA first used LED advertising hoardings which were installed in Champions League knock-out participant stadiums as well as the final stage. From the 2015–16 season onwards, these hoardings were introduced from the play-off round until the final.

Currently, Uefa Champions League sponsors are:

  • Nissan, a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer
  • Gazprom, a Russian natural gas extraction, production, transport, and sale company
  • Heineken, a Dutch beer company
  • MasterCard, an American multinational financial services corporation
  • Sony Computer Entertainment Europe with its two brands
  • PlayStation and Sony Xperia
  • UniCredit, an Italian global banking, and financial services company
  • PepsiCo, an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation with its brands
  • Gatorade, Lay's or Walkers, and Pepsi or Pepsi Max

It is important to mention that the UEFA tries to respect the different laws throughout the continent. As a result, Heineken is not presented or advertised in France, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkey, where alcohol sponsorships are restricted. Furthermore, teams with betting sponsors on their shirts are obliged to wear shirts with no sponsors at all or a substitute sponsor in the countries where the law bans gambling. This was the case in 2013 Istanbul when Real Madrid played against Galatasaray.

Even though individual clubs may wear jerseys with their sponsors only one sponsorship is permitted on the jersey apart from the kit manufacturer. However, there are also some exceptions in the case of non-profit organizations. Then there is a possibility to feature the organization in the place of the main sponsor, or in the back either below the squad number or on the collar area.

Adidas is the secondary sponsor of both competition as it supplies the official match ball as well as referee uniform for all UEFA competitions. Apart from Adidas, there is also Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer which is also a secondary sponsor as the official Champions League video game.

The UEFA Champions League sponsors are also sponsoring in some other competitions such as the UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Women's Champions League as well as the UEFA Youth League, except Heineken, which is replaced by Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer.

UEFA Europa League

Since the inception of Europa League, the tournament uses its own hoardings the same way as the UEFA Champions League. Same as in Champions League LED hoardings made their debut in the season 2012–13 even though in Europa League these hoardings first appeared in the finals. Since the season 2015–16 they were included from the round of 16 and from the group stage teams were not allowed to show their sponsors anymore.

The Europa League is currently sponsored by following five multinational corporations:

  • Hankook Tire
  • UniCredit
  • FedEx as a main sponsor
  • Enterprise Rent-a-Car
  • Heineken International with Amstel as the main brand, with local brands being advertised as well

Just like in Champions League the secondary sponsor is Adidas which provides official equipment of the referee as well as the ball.