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Heineken renews Champions League sponsorship

Heineken has agreed a three-year renewal of its global sponsorship deal with the Uefa Champions League, SportBusiness can exclusively reveal.

As previously reported, the firm was understood to be in advanced negotiations with the European governing body and its exclusive sponsorship sales agency Team Marketing, with fellow current Champions League sponsor Mastercard also on the cusp of renewing.

The Dutch brewer is now understood to have signed the contract with Uefa and an official announcement about the extension is expected soon. It would become the second brand to renew its Champions League ‘Global Sponsor’ rights after PepsiCo announced a renewal in July, also exclusively reported by SportBusiness.

The agreement covers the next Champions League cycle from 2024-25 to 2026-27 and means the brewing company will have had an association with the competition in some shape or form since 1994.

The company’s Amstel brand sponsored the tournament from that point until the main Heineken brand took over the rights in 2005. The Uefa competition, previously known as the European Cup, was rebranded and reformatted as the Champions League for the 1992-93 season.

It remains to be seen if Heineken will also renew the sponsorship deal between its zero-alcohol Heineken 0.0 brand and Uefa’s second-tier club competition, the Europa League, which is combined as a package with the third-tier Europa Conference League.

Heineken was also a Euro 2020 sponsor, the second tier of the federation’s national team football programme, and is a top-tier Uefa Women’s Football Partner, the uppermost tier in its women’s football sponsorship programme. Uefa is currently in the market for Euro 2024 sponsors while the Women’s Football Partner deal is not due to expire until 2025.

Team Marketing has the remit to sell the global sponsorship rights to all Uefa club competitions for the next cycle while CAA Eleven is the exclusive sponsorship sales agency for national team football. TRM Partners, the sponsorship sales agency owned by Two Circles, supports the confederation’s search for sponsors for its women’s football programme.

Flat fee
SportBusiness understands Heineken is paying a similar sum on a per-annum basis to its previous three-year deal with the competition.

The brand is known to have been one of the highest-paying brands in the Champions League sponsorship portfolio and sources said the flat fee ought to be seen as a course correction to bring its deal closer into line with other sponsors.

Team Marketing is facing increased revenue targets for the Champions League based on the heightened media value of the competition as format changes expand its total number of matches and teams taking part.

To help meet the targets, Uefa’s Champions League sponsorship offering for the next cycle will include one additional top-tier Global Sponsor position and a new secondary ‘supplier-style’ tier, designed to appeal to technology brands or companies who lack the financial clout to take a top-tier package.

Uefa and Team are aware that affordability is becoming an issue for some brands, so part of the thinking behind the new slots is that they will spread the burden of meeting the new sponsorship revenue targets.

Set against this, sister title SportBusiness Sponsorship reported PepsiCo’s deal to be worth around 20 per cent more than its agreement in the last three-year cycle. The uplift is partly explained by the company securing an enhanced package of rights that includes the player hydration rights and pitch-side exposure for its Gatorade brand.

Sources said the company was keenly aware of interest from Coca-Cola in sponsoring the Champions League, with one suggesting the rival brand had come closer than ever to snatching the rights from PepsiCo. But SportBusiness Sponsorship has been unable to determine exactly how advanced discussions got with the competitor.

There is also understood to be an uplift in Mastercard’s renewal, which is thought to have been agreed in principle and is now at the contracting phase.

In April it was revealed Uefa had also accepted three offers from brands in relation to its Europa League and Europa Conference League packages but the identities of the companies in question has yet to be revealed.

Marketing & Sponsorship

Fifa President Branded ‘A Chancer’ Over £1,750 Club World Cup Tickets

Fifa President Branded ‘A Chancer’ Over £1,750 Club World Cup Tickets

Fifa has been slammed by football fans after the first ticket prices for next year’s Club World Cup were published, with the cheapest seats available for the final costing £700 ($890).

The prices, listed on Bayern Munich’s website, go up to £1,755 ($2,230) for lower-tier seats at the final, which will be played at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

In response, the Football Supporters’ Association called Fifa president Gianni Infantino “an absolute chancer” in a post on social media.

The prices published by Bayern, one of 32 clubs set to play in the first edition of the revamped competition, showed that their group stage tickets range from £35 ($45) to £127 ($161).

Prices rise steeply in the knockout stages of the Club World Cup, starting at £220 ($279) for the quarter-finals and £414 ($526) for the semi-finals.

Fifa’s website says that tickets for some group stage matches will be available for £24 ($30) plus taxes and fees, but it has not yet published a full list of prices for all games.

The first phase of ticket sales is due to begin on Thursday and run until mid-January. Seats are being sold on a first come, first served basis and Fifa said it expected them to “go fast”.

A presale window opened on Tuesday for the 12 host venues, which also include Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, Audi Field in Washington DC and LA’s Rose Bowl Stadium.

Further sales are set to take place through the clubs participating in the Club World Cup from January. England’s representatives will be Manchester City and Chelsea.

Manchester City face group games against Juventus, Al Ain and Wydad AC, while Chelsea will meet Flamengo, Club Leon and Esperance.

Fifa and Infantino could face a further backlash after it emerged that dynamic pricing will also be used in the sales process for the Club World Cup.

The sales method gained notoriety earlier this year when Oasis used it to maximise returns from ticket sales for their reunion tour in 2025.

 

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Marketing & Sponsorship

FIFA To Open New Office Hub In Rabat, Morocco

FIFA To Open New Office Hub In Rabat, Morocco

In a further decentralisation of the organisation, FIFA have announced that the world governing body will be opening an office in Rabat, Morocco.

Alongside Miami, Paris and Jakarta, the Rabat office will serve as one of four major FIFA hubs. The office in the Moroccan capital will host a mix of personnel from different departments. Morocco will co-host the 2030 World Cup and FIFA said the office in the Moroccan capital will be opened next year.

In a statement, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: “We know how welcoming the people of Morocco are. Everybody loves Morocco. I am sure the world will celebrate Morocco and football here, again, in 2030. Congratulations and thank you! And this is why we at FIFA decided to set up our main African office here, in Morocco, in Rabat.

“This is where we’ll draw the future of African football, together. We will write new fascinating and exciting pages for the future of African football. I am sure that, together, we will give Africa the success it deserves.”

On social media, FIFA director of member associations Africa Gelson Fernandes called the new office “a key milestone”.

The Confederation of African football has traditionally run its business from Cairo in Egypt.

Infantino has been decentralising FIFA at a rapid pace. Paris is home to FIFA’s football development activities with strong ties to Africa. However, a French court denied FIFA the tax breaks the organsation had been seeking. Last summer, reports were that FIFA’s offices have been downsized.

FIFA and Infantino also moved the organisation’s legal department from Zurich to Miami where FIFA have a hub ahead of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. That move was met with resistance from FIFA’s in-house lawyers. FIFA however have never clarified the motive of the decision.

The governing body also has eleven regional development offices scattered around the world to provide member associations with more support. These offices are in Barbados, Panama, Paraguay, Senegal, Congo, South Africa, Rwanda, the UAE, India, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Contact the writer of this story at moc.llabtoofdlrowedisni@itnuk.ardnimas

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How To Watch The Club World Cup Draw Live On DAZN: Date, Time, Draw Format

How To Watch The Club World Cup Draw Live On DAZN: Date, Time, Draw Format

The FIFA Club World Cup takes place in July 2025 in the US, with the world’s best clubs and players fighting it out to be crowned world champions and it will all be broadcast live on DAZN.

All 63 matches in competition will be broadcast by DAZN worldwide, in multiple languages, and all for free, as clubs from Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Oceania all compete.

The build up to the expanded, 32-team competition heats up when the tournament draw is made on Thursday, December 5,which you can watch for free exclusively on DAZN. Sign up here for a free DAZN account to watch.

The new format is set to be played every four years, just like the World Cup.

Who is in the Club World Cup draw?
The 32 clubs involved are some of the biggest in the football world. They include Real Madrid, River Plate, Flamengo, Juventus, Boca Juniors, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain.

Qualification for the tournament was based on either winning a continental title – IE: UEFA Champions League or CONMEBOL Libertadores – in one of the four most-recent seasons or by having a high ranking of performance in the top-level continental tournament over the four-year period.

So, for a country like England, who were given two slots, Manchester City and Chelsea will represented them, rather than say Liverpool, because the former two clubs have won the Champions League more recently.

Pot 1: Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate, Fluminense
Pot 2: Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Porto, Atletico Madrid, Benfica, Juventus, Salzburg
Pot 3: Al Hilal, Ulsan, Al Ahly, Wydad, Monterrey, Club Leon, Boca Juniors, Botafogo
Pot 4: Urawa Red Diamonds, Al Ain, Esperance Sportive de Tunisie, Mamelodi Sundowns, Pachuca, Seattle Sounders, Auckland City, Inter Miami
How to watch the Club World Cup draw
The Club World Cup draw will take place at 6pm GMT; 1pm ET; 12pm CT on Thursday, December 5. It will be broadcast live and for free on DAZN worldwide.

To watch on DAZN, simply enter your email address to setup a free account and that is it. Sign up here.

Or, if you are already a DAZN subscriber or Freemium member, then the draw is part of your current membership.

DAZN News will also be running a live blog of the draw to keep you fully up-to-date with proceedings.

How does the draw work and key rules?

The pots
Pot 1 is made up of the highest-ranked teams from Europe and South America. Pot 2 is the rest of Europe.

Pot 3 is the best of Asia, Africa, Concacaf and the rest of South America

Pot 4 is all remaining clubs.

The rules of the draw
No group can feature more than one team from the same confederation except for UEFA, which has 12 teams across the eight groups
Teams from the same country cannot be drawn together, which only affects Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid
Inter Miami CF take position four in Group A and will play the opening game
Seattle Sounders take position four in Group B to ensure they play at their home ground
There is also a seeding structure in place, which means UEFA’s top seeds Real Madrid and Manchester City will be in opposite halves of the draw, as will CONMEBOL’s Flamengo and Palmeiras. It means these teams will not potentially meet until the semi-finals, if they all win their respective groups.

The same principle of being in opposite halves of the draw applies to Pot 1 seeds 3 and 4 for each confederation, which are Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain; and River Plate & Fluminense.

In Pot 1 the UEFA teams will be placed into groups so that, if they finish first in the group, they cannot play each other before the semi-finals. The same applies to the four South American teams.

To achieve the necessary draw build for Pot teams, pathways have been created.

Pathway 1: Winners of Groups A, C, E and G play the runners-up of Groups B, D, F and H.
Pathway 2: Winners of Groups B, D, F and H play the runners-up of Groups A, C, E and G.
In Pot 2 Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale and FC Porto will be drawn into a group with one of Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate, Fluminense.

Atlético Madrid, Benfica, Juventus and RB Salzburg will be drawn into a group with one of Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain.

How the draw will run
Finally we can actually get to the draw. It will start by drawing all of the teams from team pot 1, then pots 2, 3 and 4. Groups will be filled in order, subject to draw rules.

For Groups A and B, the other teams take the same position as their pot (as Inter Miami and Seattle are in position 4).

For Groups C to H, the position in the group will be drawn. This influences the order of the fixtures.

Where is the Club World Cup being staged?
The July 2025 tournament will be hosted by the United States, as a warm up to them co-hosting 2026 World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico.

There will be 12 different stadiums used for the club competition.

The first match will be held in Miami on Sunday, June 15, at the Hard Rock Stadium, and will see home club Inter Miami play.

New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium will host the final on July 13.

Atlanta, Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Charlotte, TQL Stadium
Cincinnati, Bank of America Stadium
Los Angeles, Rose Bowl Stadium
Miami, Hard Rock Stadium
Nashville, GEODIS Park
New Jersey, MetLife Stadium
Orlando, Camping World Stadium
Orlando, Inter&Co Stadium
Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Field
Seattle, Lumen Field
Washington DC, Audi Field

Watch the Club World Cup draw live on DAZN
Club World Cup

Sign up for a free DAZN account now to watch the Club World Cup draw live on DAZN on Thursday December 5.

Or, if you are already a DAZN subscriber or Freemium member, then the draw is part of your current membership.

A DAZN Freemium account costs nothing and provides access to action across football, boxing, NFL, golf, darts, motorsports, basketball and padel.

This includes the UEFA Women’s Champions League, NFL, PDC Darts, LIV Golf, Super League Basketball and Saudi Pro League, plus other weekly specially selected games, leagues, sports and highlights.

Free TV Channels include Matchroom Boxing, PGA Tour, PDC Darts, PowerSports World, Billiard TV and Padel Time TV.

You only need an email address to register for a Freemium account, with no hidden costs or fees.

 

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