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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.

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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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Marketing & Sponsorship

FIFA Agree $1BILLION Deal with DAZN To Broadcast 2025 Club World Cup 

FIFA Agree $1BILLION Deal with DAZN To Broadcast 2025 Club World Cup 

FIFA has agreed a deal with British streaming service DAZN to broadcast next year’s Club World Cup in the United States.

All 63 matches will be available to fans worldwide for free on DAZN’s platform in a deal reportedly worth around $1billion. There are also expected to be sub-licensed deals to local networks.

FIFA had initially struggled to sell the broadcasting rights to the competition and had previously been in talks with Apple over a global streaming deal.

In a statement, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said: “I am delighted to announce that FIFA, in partnership with DAZN and FIFA+, will bring the best of club football for free to everywhere in the world, meaning that every single football fan across the globe can watch the best players from the 32 best clubs compete in the new FIFA Club World Cup to be the first official ‘FIFA Club World Champions’.

“The new FIFA Club World Cup is a merit-based, inclusive tournament that will be the pinnacle of global club football, capturing the imagination of players and fans across the world.”

DAZN’s chief executive officer Shay Segev, hailed the deal as a “major milestone” for the broadcaster.

The 2025 Club World Cup will begin on June 15 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, with the final taking place on July 13 at the MetLife Stadium in New York.

It will feature 32 teams from across the globe, including Manchester City, Chelsea and Inter Miami.

The draw for the tournament is set to take place in Miami on Thursday at 6pm.

 

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Marketing & Sponsorship

AB InBev Named Official Beer Sponsor Of The FIFA Club World Cup 2025

AB InBev Named Official Beer Sponsor Of The FIFA Club World Cup 2025

FIFA has extended its partnership with AB InBev as the official beer sponsor of the upcoming 2025 FIFA Club World Cup from June 15 to July 13.

AB InBev is also a sponsor of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be co-hosted by 16 cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States, the brewer noted.

The brands Budweiser and Michelob Ultra will lead the partnership, complemented by local brands in select markets.

‘New Global Tournament’
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said, “AB InBev has been an iconic sponsor of our events for almost 40 years. Today, we are delighted to welcome them as a partner of the new FIFA Club World Cup.

“We are at the beginning of a journey that will redefine club football and bring a new global tournament to life. With AB InBev’s brands by our side, we can create unforgettable moments for football fans around the world.”

FIFA Club World Cup 2025 will see the participation of 32 of the world’s best football clubs for a month-long tournament across 11 host cities.

‘Multifaceted Sponsorship’
As part of the multifaceted sponsorship, AB InBev will create unique brand experiences in participating countries, present the “Superior Player of the Match Award” and amplify memorable moments from the tournament.

“Our brands are at the heart of the world’s most meaningful cultural moments and iconic sporting events,” said CEO of AB InBev, Michel Doukeris.

“Our partnership with the FIFA Club World Cup continues this tradition by bringing beer and sport together for fans around the world, creating more moments of togetherness and conviviality. We look forward to activating this unique tournament with FIFA next summer.”

ESM Magazine

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