Qatar Airways, the state-owned national airline carrier of the Gulf state, has unveiled the extension of its official airline tie-up with European soccer’s governing body UEFA.
The deal was announced on Friday, ahead of this year’s UEFA European Championships national teams tournament in Germany getting underway.
The extension comes with Qatar Airways having also been a UEFA partner for the previous edition of the Euros, which took place across the continent in 2021. For that tournament, Qatar Airways acted as the official airline partner, in a deal estimated by GlobalData as being worth $16 million.
This renewal involves Qatar Airways “launching a new gateway” in the German city of Hamburg, which is playing host to five of the 24-team tournament’s games in total.
Mohammed Al-Meer, chief executive at Qatar Airways Group, has said: “We are delighted to partner with UEFA. As the airline partner of the men’s national competitions, Qatar Airways is committed to bringing thousands of fans to Germany for this prestigious event.”
Elsewhere in soccer, Qatar Airways has deals in place with global governing body FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation, as well as European clubs giants Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan. Across other sports, it also has deals in place with properties such as motor racing’s iconic Formula 1, NBA basketball’s Brooklyn Nets, and the United Rugby Championship.
Last week also saw the airline become title sponsor of the international Premier Padel tour (run by Qatar Sports Investments).
For the Euros, meanwhile, Bitburger, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Telekom, Ergo, and Wisenhof are the five national sponsors alongside global partners adidas, AliExpress, Alipay, Atos, Betano, Booking.com, BYD, Coca-Cola, Engelbert Strauss, Hisense, Lidl, Visit Qatar/Qatar Airways, and Vivo.
Before the start of the tournament, UEFA’s marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein spoke to Sportcal (GloobalData) about the capacity for the 2024 Euros to be one of the most commercially successful ever.
He said that, across commercial and media rights income overall, “we will see an increase of 25% from the last Euros, which is quite significant. That’s counting every revenue stream – commercial, sponsorship, licensing, broadcast, and ticketing.
“All the revenues are about 25% above the last Euros. We are above the targets and well in budget regarding this so we're very happy with the way it went. Commercially, we've achieved a very good program.”
A 25% rise would equate to UEFA generating around €2.4 billion ($2.57 billion) and a net profit of €145 million.
Since getting underway on Friday, with hosts Germany beating Scotland 5-1, seven Euro 2024 games have taken place.
