Santander has agreed a three year deal to sponsor UEFA’s Champions League from the start of the 2018/19 season, one of the more significant bank/sports sponsorship agreements announced this year. The deal bucks a recent trend with a number of banks cutting back on major sports sponsorship programmes, reports Douglas Blakey
Santander is to strengthen its association with top level football by becoming an official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, Europe’s most prestigious club football competition. The three year deal takes effect from the 2018/19 season and gives Santander the rights to pitch-side and television advertising spots, as well as tickets, client hospitality events and other rights.
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Santander has sponsored football competitions in Latin America for the last 10 years and in 2016 agreed a high profile three year deal, with the option of an additional season, to sponsor the domestic league competition in Spain rebranded as LaLiga Santander, replacing rival BBVA.
The UEFA Champions League final is the most viewed annual sporting event, watched live by more than 160 million people. The competition has more than 100 million followers in social media.
Santander Executive Chairman, Ana Botín said: “Santander’s partnership with the UEFA Champions League, the world’s most global and aspirational sporting competition, builds on our support of Libertadores and, more recently, Racing Santander, the local football team of the Cantabrian city where our bank was founded 160 years ago.
“We love sport. Our free-time exercise, which we do to challenge ourselves to be better, the weekend match we watch with family and friends, our loyalty to a club and the excitement of the spectacle.”
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By GlobalDataGuy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA Events Marketing Director, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Santander into the UEFA Champions League sponsor family and are excited to partner with one of the most distinguished and forward-thinking banks globally.
“The bank has a great heritage in sport and this partnership will allow the UEFA Champions League to further engage with football fans in Latin America and around the world.”
News of Santander’s UEFA sponsorship coincided with confirmation that Santander is to end its long running sponsorship of Formula 1 racing team, Ferrari, which it has supported for the last eight seasons. Santander is also to conclude its corporate sponsorship agreements with F1 which have helped increase Santander’s brand recognition around the world over the last 11 years.
Botin added: Ferrari and F1, to whom we are very grateful, have played an important role at Santander over the past 10 years. We will continue our support of sport because it is a valuable way to contribute to the prosperity of the communities where we work.”
Banks axing major sports sponsorship deals has become the norm in recent years.
Barclays blew the whistle on its sponsorship of the English premier league last year after a 16 season association; towards the end of the deal Barclays was paying £40m a year to be title sponsor.
At the same time, Barclays ended its title sponsorship of tennis’ ATP World Tour Finals. Meantime Royal Bank of Scotland ended its 15 year title sponsorship costing £11m per year of rugby union’s Six Nations tournament, only to perform a mini U-turn with news in November that subsidiary brand NatWest would sponsor the 2018 Six Nations, re-named the NatWest Six Nations.
One of the world sport’s biggest events, the FIFA football world cup finals, held in 2018 in Russia, has been slow to sign up sponsors as quickly as the organisers planned but has attracted local lender Alfa Bank as the first of 20 proposed ‘regional supporters’.
Other established financial sector sports sponsorship deals to end post the crisis include Nationwide’s sponsorship of the England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales football teams while Clydesdale Bank axed its sponsorship of the Scottish Premier Football league.
By contrast, National Australia Bank continues to sponsor the Australian football; ING has been sponsoring the Royal Dutch Football Federation (KNVB) since 1996 while ING Belgium’s sports sponsorship focuses primarily on the Royal Belgian Football Association (URBSFA/KBVB).
In Northern Ireland, Danske Bank continues to sponsor the local league championship while ABSA has sponsored the South Africa premier division since 2007.
At club level, one of the most lucrative bank deals is Standard Chartered’s £30m a year sponsorship of Liverpool. The parties first teamed up in 2010 and the latest deal runs until 2019.
