2.5 billion euros. That’s how much the European football association Uefa receives from the ongoing European Championship in Germany.
The lion’s share of the money, or approximately 1.4 billion, comes from television rights. More than 130 TV companies worldwide have invested in them.
The largest individual financiers are the main sponsors. According to the UEFA website The German European Championship has 13 official main sponsors. No less than five of these come from China and three from the host country Germany. When you include the American Coca-Cola and Qatar’s state-owned Visit Qatar, the majority of the main sponsors come from outside Europe.
Specializing in international sports finance According to SportsPro the companies in question are mostly responsible for the sponsorship money, which SP estimates to be 568 million euros.
The influence of Chinese companies can be seen especially in the light advertisements placed on the sides of the EC fields, where the logos of 13 companies rotate. Six of these are Chinese.
The number is significant considering recent history, as the first company from China ended up as the main sponsor of the European Championships only in 2016. At that time, there was only one Chinese main sponsor.
In the last European Championships, the number already increased to four, and now the visibility in Germany is greater than ever.
– In a certain way, this reflects the development of the global economy. How China has risen and started to bring its influence to the European market both politically and commercially, Doctor of Economics and sports marketing expert Arto Kuuluvainen says.
With non-European money
It is nothing new that the sponsor money for the EC tournament comes from companies headquartered outside of Europe. However, Lyst’s payers have changed.
In 1992, the sponsor cake was divided among 16 official partners at the European Championships held in Sweden. Eight of them were from the United States and three from Japan.
Companies from these countries formed the majority in all EC tournaments between 1992 and 2012. Since 2016, no Japanese companies have been seen, and there is only one US financier left. At the same time, China and Qatar have increased their influence.
Serious accusations
In Germany, known for its car industry, the change has not been swallowed whole. Before the Games, there was a heated debate in the country when Volkswagen, the major car sponsor of the last European Championship, switched to the Chinese BYD in the home games.
the European Commission recently punished BYD with heavy customs duties. The reason is Chinese government subsidies, which have violated international competition law.
Both BYD and another main Chinese sponsor, electronics manufacturer Vivo, are affiliated with a human rights organization In a report published by Human Rights Watch on February 1 for the use of Uyghur labor.
the European Commission is also investigating the third Chinese EC sponsor for illegalities, online store AliExpress. The company in question is part of the Alibaba Group, in which the Chinese state has been a part owner. Among the official EC sponsors, Alibaba Group also includes the payment platforms Antom and Alipay that flash in the light commercials.
AliExpress is suspected of violating the EU Digital Services Act, which was enacted by the EU to improve consumer protection. 2.7 million tickets have been sold for the European Championship matches, and every purchase made at the stadiums goes through Alipay.
The European Commission announced on March 14 that it has started an investigation into AliExpress. 13 days later, Uefa announced the selection of AliExpress as the official sponsor of the European Championships.
When the German media Deutsche Welle asked the German Football Association how the Chinese companies in question ended up being the sponsors of the ongoing football festival, the association refused to comment and directed the inquiry directly to Uefa. Uefa responded to DW by sending a list in which it only gave the names of the 13 main sponsors of the Games.
The member does not wonder about the method of operation.
– The sums of money that the Chinese are pumping are probably freezing. The German media’s question was embarrassing for Uefa. We hardly want the sums to be known to all the people, Kuuluvainen estimates.
Historic betting agreement
The financing of the German EC tournament is also historic in the sense that Uefa qualified a betting company as its main partner for the first time.
Kuuluinen is surprised by the choice of the Greek company.
– For example, in England, there is a discussion about whether betting should be curbed, and at the same time, Uefa is rowing against the current with its decision.
– Pandora’s box has now been opened. There will definitely be a betting partner in the next races. How clean is the money with which football business runs in the world? Nobody knows, but there are a lot of question marks around it, says Kuuluvainen.
The business grew 61 times
The European Championships have grown as a product to completely new spheres since 1992, when the competitions were held for the last time with eight teams. Statistical service I’m a statistic according to UEFA’s income from the 1992 games totaled 41 million euros.
Between 1996 and 2012, the tournament was played by 16 teams, and in the last years the income grew to almost 1.4 billion.
The 24-team tournament played in 2016 and 2021 brought UEFA about 1.9 billion euros in revenue. The amount is getting a huge jump again in percentage terms – although this time without increasing the number of teams. The income of 2.5 billion means that the European Championship has grown 61 times the business for UEFA in 32 years.
Lecturer teaching sports marketing at Turku University of Applied Sciences Jaakko Haltia also sees positive aspects in the development of western sports sponsorship, despite UEFA’s recent decisions.
– Recently, it has been emphasized that sponsorship starts with values. That there must be something that connects the sponsor and the community. Don’t think of the sponsor as an intruder, says Haltia.
He sees that in Europe the basis for value-based thinking is more receptive than in the global market – let’s face it, Europe can also accommodate opinions from all sides.
– At the global level, you have to think that there are Arab countries, there is China, the United States, South America and so on. It is necessary to consider what is a mixture of values and to find some kind of middle ground.
– However, now that we are only at the European level, UEFA could demand this values-based thinking, Haltia states.
However, the umbrella organization also receives praise from Haltia. Of the 2.5 billion income, there is enough to distribute after expenses.
Uefa shares that it has been in operation for 20 years His Hat Trick program through grants to national associations, which in the years 2024–2028 are a total of 935 million euros.
Even though the Finnish national football team did not make it to the European Championship in Germany, the Finnish Football Federation receives several million annually from UEFA in support of its projects.
– The sport closest to me is volleyball. In that case, the mechanism does not work in any way for the benefit of the clubs or sports federations. Of course, there are differences between sports, and football is a huge money-making machine, says Haltia.