UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, has begun the tender process for media rights to its top-tier club competitions during the 2024-27 cycle in three Baltic markets and the Caribbean.
In total, the governing body has kicked off four separate tenders covering rights to the top-tier UEFA Champions League (UCL), second-tier Europa League, and third-tier Europa Conference League, between 2024-25 and 2026-27. These cover Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Caribbean.
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The sales are being handled by Team Marketing, UEFA’s partner agency for media and commercial rights sales across its club competitions. All inquiries should be directed to info@team.ch, with a deadline for submissions from the European countries of March 25, and March 26 for broadcasters interested in the Caribbean rights.
Currently, covering the ongoing 2021-24 UEFA club competitions cycle, embattled European media group Viaplay holds UCL rights in the Baltics (although it will no longer have a presence there from 2025 onwards due to financial challenges leading to a withdrawal into its key Nordic markets).
In the Caribbean, meanwhile, rights are presently held by a combination of FlowSports and Sportsmax.
UEFA’s most recent tender process for club competition media rights was launched earlier this month, across a swathe of Asia-Pacific, while in late January a tender was issued in Poland.
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By GlobalDataIn terms of deals struck, February has already seen commercial free-to-air Irish broadcaster Virgin Media secure rights to 166 UCL games each season across the next three campaigns, and Canal Plus secure French-language rights across sub-Saharan Africa.
The UCL’s current format will be altered substantially for 2024-25, taking on a new single-league structure instead of being split into multiple groups from which teams qualify for the knockout stage.
The competition will expand from 32 to 36 teams and incorporate 189 matches instead of 125.
Elsewhere, UEFA has extended its commercial deal covering the Europa League and Conference League (which will be rebranded as such from next season) with online banking specialist Swissquote, until the end of 2026-27.
Swissquote became the first online bank to enter into an exclusive partnership with those two competitions in September 2021, when it struck a three-season deal.
The renewal will see the brand continue to benefit from a presence on pitch-side advertising hoardings, as well as hospitality rights at all games. UEFA has also said it will work closely with Swissquote to “create exciting content on social media and in digital marketing campaigns until 2027.”
The firm has joined Engelbert Strauss as a Europa League and Conference League partner through 2026-27.
Earlier this month, international food delivery firm Just Eat takeaway.com renewed its sponsorship of all three major men’s UEFA club competitions for 2024-27.
Other Europa League and Conference League current sponsors, meanwhile, include Heineken 0.0, Hankook, Enterprise, Swissquote, Just Eat, and Bwin.
