Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has struck a significant commercial deal with European soccer's governing body UEFA.
Through a multi-year tie-up unveiled today, Alibaba becomes the global AI, cloud computing, and e-commerce partner for both the 2028 UEFA European Championships national teams competition and the various UEFA men's club competitions for the 2027-33 cycle (six seasons).
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The latter element of the overall deal covers the top-tier UEFA Champions League, second-tier Europa League, and third-tier Conference League, as well as the annual UEFA Super Cup.
The partnership will involve the Alibaba Cloud, Qwen, and AliExpress brands.
The aim is for these brands to "deliver intelligent innovations across UEFA's flagship competitions," to benefit the overall fan experience around these properties.
This deal has been publicised in the immediate build-up to the 2025-26 Champions League, taking place tomorrow and being contested by England's Arsenal and France's Paris Saint-Germain.
Joe Tsai, chair of Alibaba Group, has said: "I am excited to work with UEFA to realise the vision of this multi-year partnership, where we will commit our cloud computing, full-stack AI, and global e-commerce capabilities to support UEFA and UC3 to deliver these iconic competitions to global fans.”
Aleksander Ceferin, UEFA's president, added: "Their [Alibaba's] expertise in artificial intelligence, cloud computing technology, and e-commerce will support UEFA’s commitment to thoughtful innovation and to enhancing the experience of supporters around the world."
The list of Euro 2028 tournament sponsors includes Adidas, Atos, Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, Lidl, and Visit Qatar.
Brands already signed up for the next club competition commercial cycle, meanwhile, include AB InBev, Nike, and PepsiCo.
UEFA is also currently engaged in selling its media rights for the next men's club competitions cycle – earlier this week the governing body, along with Relevent Football Partners, opened the tender process for Spanish-language rights in the US.
