Heineken among UWCL sponsors to renew

Heineken has extended its Uefa Women’s Champions League sponsorship for the new five-season cycle, while renewals have been struck with Euronics and Sony PlayStation, SportBusiness understands.

It was announced this morning that the Dutch brewer has prolonged its UWCL sponsorship from 2025-26 to 2029-30. Under the deal, Heineken will continue to be granted extensive rights, including ticketing and hospitality, in-stadium visibility, digital campaigns, and the ability to create fan experiences. 

Heineken became a Uefa Women’s Football central sponsor in 2021 in a four-season deal covering the UWCL, two editions of the Uefa Women’s Euro, age-grade tournaments and futsal. The postponement of the 2021 Women’s Euro as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic allowed the brand to sponsor both the delayed event in 2022 and this year’s edition of the tournament under one overarching deal.

A recent agreement signed by Carlsberg across all of Uefa’s men’s and women’s national team competitions meant that the rival brewer has supplanted Heineken as the sponsor of women’s national team competitions for the next cycle.

Amazon and PepsiCo will also appear as UWCL sponsors during the 2025-30 UWCL cycle, having renewed as top-tier Women’s Football Partners, with rights across all Uefa club and national team women’s competitions. In September, Vodafone joined this elevated tier, as part of a wide-ranging agreement that also included a two-year licensing deal for the men’s Uefa Champions League.

Commenting ahead of the start of the new 18-team UWCL league phase tonight, UC3, the joint venture between Uefa and the European Club Association (ECA), said that more central sponsorships would be announced in the coming weeks.

Both Euronics and Sony PlayStation branding was on show during ‘Matchday -1’ press conference backdrops and on LED boards at training yesterday (Monday).

Euronics was a top-tier Women’s Football Partner during the previous cycle while Sony PlayStation was a second-tier sponsor. The second-tier package, which also granted rights across all women’s competitions, albeit with fewer LED rights, has been removed for this cycle.

Adidas, the official match ball supplier during the previous cycle, was also among the seven central brands on show yesterday. It remains to be seen if the brands in question have agreed sponsorship deals encompassing the rights to all women’s national and club team competitions, or as standalone UWCL sponsors.

This centralisation of the UWCL sponsorship proposition is an evolution from the current cycle where the rights are partially centralised, and competition sponsors are permitted to activate from just the quarter-final stages. As previously reported, Uefa is aiming to more than double the sponsorship income from the women’s programme over the five years, having reconfigured the packages available to brands.

The increased fee structure reflects a new focus on free-to-air media exposure for the UWCL and the fact the rights to the competition will be centralised from the initial group stages onwards. The recently launched Uefa Women’s Nations League is also included in the top-tier Women’s Football Partner package for the first time.

Nabil Nasser, global head of Heineken, said that extending its central deal allows it to “continue delivering creative campaigns that bring fans of the women’s game together from around the world, that celebrate the inclusivity and diversity in women’s football fandom, and that support the growth of the women’s game”.

Guy-Laurent Epstein, Uefa marketing director and UC3 co-managing director, added that Heineken’s renewed commitment “only serves as an endorsement of the competition’s growth and global appeal”.