MasterCard renews Champions League sponsorship

UEFA announced today that an agreement has been reached with MasterCard, one of the world's leading payment system providers, to continue as an official partner of the UEFA Champions League for the new 2012–15 cycle, and for the UEFA Super Cup in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The three-year deal will run until the end of the 2014/15 season and will see MasterCard continue to leverage the sponsorship through its exclusive product category: payment systems.

Commenting on the announcement, David Taylor, chief executive of UEFA Events SA, said: "We are very pleased to continue our relationship with MasterCard, one of the world's premier global brands. The presence and active involvement of MasterCard has contributed to the great success of the UEFA Champions League – and will do so for the next three seasons. In return we expect to keep helping MasterCard create many priceless opportunities for millions of fans and card holders worldwide."

Javier Perez, president of MasterCard Europe, said: "We are excited to renew our sponsorship with the UEFA Champions League, a relationship which dates back to 1994. Sponsorships represent a critical component of MasterCard's global marketing approach, and we will continue to use this unique platform to further create business-building opportunities for our customer financial institutions and merchants, and thereby offer priceless experiences to MasterCard card holders around the world.

"Through sponsorship of this kind, MasterCard is proud to 'bring the game to the people and the people to the game', an ambition which is matched by our objective to make as many tickets available to MasterCard card holders."

MasterCard joins Heineken, UniCredit and Ford as the fourth official partner for the competition's 2012–15 cycle, in addition to adidas, the official supplier.

UEFA Events is a wholly owned subsidiary of UEFA, created to manage and handle the European football governing body's commercial and event operations. It is, among other things, responsible for generating media rights, sponsorship, licensing and hospitality revenue from all professional national team and club competitions, and for managing relationships with all associated commercial partners.

TEAM Marketing is the exclusive marketing agency of UEFA for the UEFA Champions League.