UEFA Club Competitions SA (“UCCSA”), the joint venture between UEFA and the European Club Association (“ECA”) responsible for managing the commercial and business aspects of UEFA club competitions) is about to start the search for a marketing and sales agency(ies) to market the commercial rights to the UEFA men’s club competitions, including the flagship UEFA Champions League™, for the 2027-30 and 2030-33 cycles. This process will seek to identify the right agency(ies) to maximise the significant commercial opportunities available from the new formats of the competitions (launching in the 2024/25 season) in the future media, sponsorship and licensing landscape.
The marketing agency role (currently performed by TEAM Marketing and Relevent Sports Group) is to provide strategy and sales services in the global marketing and sale of the commercial rights to each of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League™, UEFA Conference League™, UEFA Super Cup™, UEFA Youth League™ and, the UEFA Futsal Champions League™, together with the provision of full partner and account management and associated services.
The Request For Proposals (“RFP”) will be open to suitably qualified organisations with knowledge and expertise to deliver such services as required for the optimal commercial exploitation of the full range of commercial rights to football competitions of the scale and prestige of the UEFA men’s club competitions. The sales process to prospective commercial partners is anticipated to start in advance of the second quarter of 2025, more than two years before the start of the first competition cycle.
Expressions of interest and requests to receive the RFP documentation should be sent to UCCSA by email to RFPresponses@uccsa.ch by no later than 12:00 CEST on 8 July 2024.
Prospective bidders requesting to receive the RFP documentation are required to include the following information in their email:
- Full corporate name (together with any trading names);
- Address, e-mail and telephone number of registered office and principal place of business;
- Full name, title, e-mail and telephone number of nominated contact person authorised to represent the prospective bidder’s organisation; and
- A full but brief description of the nature and scope of their business operations
While UCCSA may consider requests received after the (12:00 CEST, 8 July 2024) deadline, it cannot guarantee the timely provision of relevant documentation or the participation of a prospective bidder who submits its requests after such deadline has expired.
UEFA will notify registered prospective bidders in due course of the relevant next steps. In this respect, the RFP process is scheduled to commence on 18 July 2024 with the distribution of the RFP documentation and proposals to be received by no later than 10:00 CEST on 10 September 2024.
Request Conditions:
Persons requesting access to the RFP documentation must note the following:
- Right to refuse any request - UCCSA reserves the right to refuse any request to receive the RFP documentation without any obligation to state any reasons, in particular, but without limitation, if it believes that:
- the requesting entity is not sufficiently qualified for the prospective role;
- any request is for a primarily informational purpose or merely exploratory in nature.
- Third parties - If a proposal is to be prepared which envisages the participation of third parties, each such party must send its own request to UCCSA for access to the RFP documentation together with details of the other party(ies) with which it is proposing to collaborate in preparing a proposal.
- Confidentiality – All entities requesting to receive the RFP documentation are required to accept and agree that the contents of the RFP documentation and other information communicated as part of the RFP process are required to be kept confidential at all times and may not be shared, communicated or published in any manner whatsoever. Your request to receive the RFP will be deemed proof of specific acceptance and agreement in this respect by both the requesting individual and the organisation on whose behalf the request is made.
- Sole purpose of authorised use - The RFP documentation will be provided solely for the purposes of enabling your organisation to evaluate and prepare a suitable proposal in accordance with the terms stated in the RFP document. The contents of the RFP may not be used for any other purpose, including but not limited to the publishing of news or other materials, consulting or other activity which are not directly for the sole purpose of the preparation of proposals requested under this RFP.
- Personal data (including but not limited to names, emails, telephone numbers and biographies) relating to the requesting individual and/or individuals within your organisations will be required to be disclosed and the storing and processing of such data by UCCSA and its stakeholders (such as UEFA and ECA) and advisers is expressly consented to and accepted as a condition of the RFP process.
IF YOU OR YOUR ORGANISATION IS/ARE UNABLE TO ACCEPT SUCH TERMS, YOU MAY NOT REQUEST ACCESS TO THE RFP DOCUMENTATION.
Note: this RFP relates to the 2027/28 to 2032/33 seasons (inclusive) of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Youth League, and the UEFA Futsal Champions League only and no other competitions