Uefa has succeeded in identifying a beer sponsor to sit across all of its men’s and women’s national team football competitions, with Carlsberg returning to a role that it last held between 1988 and 2017.
The Danish brewer has agreed a five-year deal that begins with this month’s European qualifiers for the 2026 Fifa men’s World Cup and ends in 2030. It also encompasses the next edition of the men’s Euro in 2028, and the 2029 edition of the Women’s Euro.
The deal effectively means Carlsberg will supplant Heineken as the sponsor of Uefa women’s national team football competitions. This year’s Women’s Euro will be sponsored by the rival brewer via a ‘Women’s Football Partner’ deal that includes the rights to all Uefa women’s national team football events and club competitions until after the flagship tournament this July. Carlsberg’s latest deal does not confer the rights to Uefa women’s club competitions.
The national team events encompassed in the agreement include the men’s Nations League Finals in 2025, 2027 and 2029; the Women’s Nations league from 2025 to 2030; the men’s European qualifiers from 2025 to 2029; and the women’s European qualifiers in 2028 and 2029. Carlsberg will also sponsor the Uefa Futsal Euro in 2026 and 2030.
The Danish brewer’s earlier long-standing deal with the federation saw it sponsor all Uefa men’s national team football competitions between 1988 and 2017. The deal included the rights to Women’s Euro tournaments held during this period, as they were still bundled together with the men’s national team events at this stage.
Since then, the federation had struggled to identify a beer brand prepared to sponsor all of its men’s national team events, let alone one to sponsor its women’s national tournaments as well.
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For the most recent edition of the men’s Euro held in Germany last year, local beer brand Bitburger struck a lower-tier ‘national sponsor’ deal with domestic activation rights.
In the cycle before that, Heineken served as a second-tier sponsor for the delayed Euro 2020 tournament held in 2021 across several European countries after the Covid pandemic.
The delay to Women’s Euro 2021 until 2022 allowed the Dutch brewer to agree a deal that packaged rights to the postponed event with the 2025 edition as part of its expansive Women’s Football Partner deal.
Uefa unbundled the sponsorship rights to its women’s competitions in 2017, with sponsorship sales to national team and club events handled by Two Circles. In the current cycle from 2021 to 2025 the agency has the exclusive sponsorship sales mandate but has taken on a wider remit for the next cycle from 2026 to 2030, having added global broadcast rights sales for the Uefa Women’s Champions League.
The CAA Eleven agency, a division of CAA Sports, has the remit to sell, manage and service the commercial rights to Uefa’s men’s national team competitions.