Uefa offers up last 2021-25 women's soccer sponsorship package
Soccer -
23 Feb 2021
Uefa, European soccer’s governing body, is welcoming offers for the sixth and final package of standalone Uefa Women’s Football sponsorship rights, with a deadline of 1 March.
The governing body has already accepted offers, in principle, for five out of six Tier 1 women’s soccer Global Sponsorship packages related to the pan-continental Women’s Champions League and other high-profile competitions in the 2021-25 rights cycle.
Offers for the last package - which includes rights to the Uefa Women’s European Championships as well as the Women’s Champions League - should be sent by email to henry.birch@twocircles.com, and all requests for information should go to the same address.
Two Circles, the international digital-focused agency owned by Bruin Sports Capital, has handled the Uefa women’s soccer rights since the end of last year.
Sponsorship rights for the Uefa Women’s Champions League for the 2021-22 season onwards have been centralised past the quarter-final stage. Until now only the final has been centralised.
PepsiCo, the US soft drinks and snack foods giant, was the last of the five current women's soccer partners to come on board, in August last year, with Hublot, Esprit, Nike and Visa already signed up.
The following competitions are included in the rights package: Uefa Women’s European Championship; Uefa Women’s Champions League; Uefa Women’s European Under-19 and Under-17 Championships, and the Women’s Futsal Euro. The sponsor will also have rights connected to Uefa’s Together #WePlayStrong programme, which encourages more girls and women to play soccer.
In 2017, the governing body took the decision to split the marketing of its men’s and women’s competitions and sell the commercial opportunities separately.
The body’s commercial model previously involved selling sponsorship packages for the men’s Champions League and the Women’s Champions League finals together, and then bundling sponsorship rights to the Women’s European Championships and youth tournaments with the rights to the men’s European Championships.
In 2018, Uefa appointed TRM Partners, the UK-based sponsorship agency, to market the new portfolio. The firm was acquired by Two Circles in November last year, in a deal worth $45 million, with TRM integrated as Two Circles Rights Management.
In November last year, Uefa launched a tender for bids from prospective match ball and apparel providers for the 2021-25 cycle of its women’s competitions.
Following a delay of a year caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the next Women’s European Championships will take place in England on 6 to 31 July, 2022. The Netherlands are the defending champions.
