Uefa, the governing body for European football, has revealed plans to unbundle the sponsorship of some of its women’s competitions from men’s events in a move designed to accelerate the growth of the women’s game.
The sponsorship of the Women’s Euro 2021 national team event is being unbundled from men’s competitions, along with the Women’s Champions League from next year and Uefa’s other national team youth competitions for women.
The sponsorship for the events is being packaged together for the first time and put out to tender, together with grassroots participation initiatives such as Together #WePlayStrong.
The latest Leaders Generation XX Series think tank, delivered in partnership with Uefa, is meeting in London today (Wednesday) to discuss the prospect of unbundling sponsorship rights, how to measure return on investment, co-creating assets with brands and current industry examples of best practice. The Generation XX Series is designed to develop the conversation around women’s sport.
Peter Willems, Uefa’s head of marketing activities and sponsorship, said: “Uefa is firmly committed to increasing the number of girls playing football and building strong, sustainable women’s competitions. Opportunities such as today’s think tank are invaluable in opening up the debate around innovative sponsorship models that can help grow the game.
“By gathering some of the key stakeholders in women’s sport we can share experiences, reflecting not only on the progress that has been made, but also on how challenges have been overcome, which all adds to our depth of knowledge.
“Great strides have been made this year, with Together #WePlayStrong reaching more than 10 million girls already, and the Leaders Generation XX Series is another important element in support of our long-term vision to make football the number one sport among girls and women across Europe.”