SportBusiness.com

UEFA NETS SELL-OUT SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMME

UEFA has hailed its EUROTOP commercial programme a runaway success after completing sales in just four months – and pocketing EUR257m in the process.

The figure is a 31-percent increase over the EUR177m generated by the previous sponsorship cycle. The majority of this revenue comes from the six main partners as well as individual event sponsors.

Brands such as McDonald’s, Carlsberg and JVC have all publicly confirmed deals, while UEFA says the remaining three ‘global, blue-chip’ companies will be officially revealed over the coming months.

The four-year sponsorship package covers its national-team competitions until 2009. The previous programme had taken 20-months to fill.
UEFA Marketing and Media Management (UMMM) chief Philippe Margraff said: “The success of the programme is a testament to the increasing popularity and appeal of UEFA competitions, especially following Euro 2004 which has now become a benchmark for our organisation.
“Our EURO 2004 sponsors showed an average increase in sponsorship awareness of 28 percent so our partners are confident that they can obtain measurable and quantifiable benefits in committing to a long-term relationship with us.”
The next set of sponsorship packages on the market are the National Supporter positions for EURO 2008, which are currently being negotiated in the host countries Austria and Switzerland.