European soccer's governing body UEFA has entered exclusive negotiations with the Relevent Sports agency over commercial rights, during the 2027-33 cycle, to the lucrative and prestigious array of UEFA men’s club competitions.
This comes as a colossal blow to Team Marketing, the agency that has held these rights – up until the last few years, globally – since the top-tier UEFA Champions League was created in 1992, a milestone that marked the start of the modern era of UEFA’s pan-continental competitions.
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Team had been the worldwide rights holder until 2022 when rights were sold (in the US specifically) to Relevent – this broke Team's hegemony over the properties for the first time, although it did still retain rights in all other countries.
Indeed, up until it established the T/Squared agency, it had only dealt with UEFA as a significant client, with a minimal rights portfolio aside from that.
UEFA first put these rights to tender in mid-June, before shortlisting Relevent (the marketing agency backed by Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins NFL franchise) as one of the best-equipped bidders later in the year. The process has been overseen by UC3, the joint vehicle of UEFA and the European Club Association (ECA) representative body.
UC3 has now said it anticipates “concluding the process in the coming weeks.”
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By GlobalDataThe request for proposals issued last June gave bidders the chance to submit proposals for either a three-year deal (2027 to 2030) or a six-year tie-up through 2032-33, the option that Relevent has taken.
The rights involved cover sponsorship, broadcast, and licensing rights for the top-tier UEFA Champions League, as well as the secondary Europa League and third-tier Conference League competitions.
Other UEFA tournaments covered by the deal will be the annual Super Cup showpiece match, the UEFA Youth League youth category competition, and the Futsal Champions League – also organized by UEFA. The cycle begins with the 2027-28 UEFA campaign, with the start of that season now around two-and-a-half years away.
In announcing the exclusive negotiating window, UC3 said in a statement: “The board of UC3 … has agreed to enter into an exclusive period of negotiations with Relevent Sports over the global commercial rights to the UEFA men’s club competitions for the period 2027-2033.
“The decision follows an open tender process, launched last summer, which attracted bids from a number of global and regional agencies.”
In 2022, when Team lost global rights for the first time and Relevent swooped in the US, the latter agency prevailed after offering $250 million for that specific package, it was reported at the time.
Before those deals were struck, UEFA had issued a tender for the global commercial rights – this represented a major break from its previous policy of agreeing to a set of terms with Team every three years, behind closed doors, based on the agency's meeting of certain performance indicators during the previous cycle.
After securing the rights for the 2024-27 cycle, Relevent then concluded a broadcast deal for the Champions League in the US with Paramount, worth $1.5 billion over six seasons (2024-25 through 2029-30).
Team has now issued its own statement, saying: “Naturally, we are disappointed, but we remain incredibly proud of the work we have done alongside UEFA over the past 35 years. Together, we have built a world-class commercial programme that has delivered over €50 billion in revenue for European club football, growing the value of the UMCCs (UEFA men's club competitions) with each successive cycle.
“Even in the most challenging market conditions, we have always driven growth and consistently outperformed the market — including a more than 20% increase in the current rights cycle …
“While this marks the end of an era, it is not the end of our ambition. Our deep knowledge of European club football, our track record of success, and our unwavering commitment to excellence remain. We are excited about the future and confident in Team’s expertise.”
The CAA Eleven agency handles the sale and distribution of the portfolio of rights for UEFA’s various international tournaments and competitions.
