Centralised sponsorship revenue from the Uefa Women’s Champions League reached nearly €9.8m ($10.8m) last season but the competition still relied on €10m of “cross-financing” from the men’s clubs competitions.
The UWCL generated €18.9m in revenues in 2023-24. While just over half stemmed from sponsorship, media rights raised €8.1m. The remainder came from ticketing (€700,000) and hospitality (€300,000).
In 2021-22, only €6.8m came from sponsorship rights sales but the number rose following additions to the Uefa Women’s Football Partner programme, which includes rights to both the European clubs and national team competitions.
The results for the UWCL’s third season of rights centralisation shine a light on the competition’s ongoing financial underpin in order to return a positive result.
Following competition costs of €18.3m and solidarity payments of €5.6m, the “cross-financing” of €10m from Uefa’s men’s competitions allowed the tournament to return positive net revenue of €5m. That figure added to financing of €13.2m from Uefa then allowed club payments of €18.2m to be distributed.
Uefa fully centralised the broadcast rights to the competition from the 2021-22 group stage onwards. Previously, only the broadcast rights to the final were centrally marketed by Uefa, with the clubs responsible for the sale of rights to their home leg in all earlier knockout rounds.
The vast majority of the €8.1m in global media rights revenue stems from the four-year international rights deal with DAZN. The agreement excludes the Middle East and North Africa, where beIN Sports secured the rights, along with China.
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The UWCL sponsorship rights were partially centralised from 2021-22 from the group stage onwards as the competition format was revised. Before that, sponsorship rights to the UWCL final were bundled with the (centralised) rights to the men’s Champions League.
Sister publication SportBusiness Sponsorship estimates that Uefa is generating a total of between €85m and €95m in Uefa Women’s Football Partner sponsorship revenue over the current four-year period. This is in part on the back of sharply increased audiences for women’s national team matches at major tournaments.
New cycle, new targets
Next season will see the dawn of a new five-year cycle for the UWCL and the arrival of the second-tier Uefa Women’s Europa Cup.
Increased commercial returns have led Uefa to project revenue distribution of €37.7m in 2025-26 and 2026-27 followed by €46.7m per season over the next three seasons. While the direct Uefa investment would drop to €11.3m per season, the subsidy from the men’s competitions would jump to €25m per season. This is in part due to UWCL competition costs jumping from €18.3m last season to €32.4m next season.
The Two Circles agency, which currently sells the Uefa Women’s Football Partner sponsorship rights, is selling the global broadcast and sponsorship rights to the UWCL during the upcoming five-year cycle.
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The competition changes, coupled with the ability for brands to acquire UWCL rights on a standalone basis for the first time, have led Uefa and Two Circles to target a doubling of sponsorship income from the women’s football programme in the next commercial cycle.
The new Two Circles deal will mark the end of DAZN’s direct hold over the Uefa UWCL’s media rights. YouTube audiences on DAZN, coupled with a lack of appetite for UWCL behind a paywall, have, according to most industry observers, served to underline that the competition’s strongest commercial model must lean on a significant free-to-air footprint in order to maximise growing sponsorship returns and fan engagement opportunities.
Uefa is soon expected to announce the results of Two Circles’ sale of UWCL broadcast rights in Europe and the Americas following tenders issued on January 3. It is expected that the deals will balance strong free-to-air exposure, possibly with the European Broadcasting Union, and subscription direct-to-consumer streaming.