MasterCard renews faith in Uefa sponsorship

LONDON - MasterCard Europe has extended its Uefa sponsorship to include the Champions League 2006 to 2009 and Euro 2008.

As well as coverage at all Uefa matches, the sponsorship gives MasterCard the opportunity to offer its 25,000 member financial institutions exclusive access to football assets to help them create business-building programmes to drive card acquisition, activation and usage.

MasterCard, which has been an official Uefa sponsor for 14-years, will also gain exclusive rights within the Payment Services category as part of the renewed deal.

Jeremy Nicholds, commercial director at MasterCard Europe, said: "Football is the most popular sport in most of MasterCard's key markets. With that in mind, our continuing partnership with Uefa is a powerful platform to build the MasterCard brand among the existing 350m MasterCard cardholders in Europe, while also creating preference with potential customers."

The Uefa Champions League and the Uefa European Championship are ranked among the biggest sporting competitions in the world, with nearly 50% of the audience for the Uefa Champions League 2004/2005 season coming from outside Europe.

"As a global brand with a strong European heritage, the truly international interest in Uefa's competitions means that it is perfectly aligned to our business", Nicholds added.

The package also includes rights to other Uefa properties, including the Women's European Championship, the U-21 European Championship and the Futsal European Championship.

MasterCard has been a sponsor of the European Championship since 1992 and the Champions League since 1994.

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