EXCLUSIVE: Gatorade Partners with the UEFA Champions League
By Lee Kilby
PepsiCo recently announced a three-year partnership with the UEFA Champions League that includes flagship global brands Pepsi Max, Lay’s and Gatorade, making Gatorade the Official Sports Drink of the tournament.
Gatorade expanded on its recent three-year partnership with football’s most-watched annual sporting event, UEFA Champions League, as part of a PepsiCo multi-brand partnership.
Formally designated as the tournament’s “Official Sports Drink,” Gatorade will receive access to field boards, product at pre-post game press conferences as well as access and usage of UEFA Champions League video footage, static imagery and the tournament logo on pack and in-store.
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“As the global leader in sports fuel, Gatorade is a prestigious brand that is associated with many of the world’s premier athletes, teams and leagues, so this new partnership is a natural fit,” said Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA Champions League’s SA Marketing Director.
Gatorade is currently the official sports fuel partner for more than 50 football clubs across 12 countries worldwide. This new partnership comes months after Gatorade announced a renewed deal with international soccer star Lionel Messi, rising star James Rodriguez as well as partner clubs Arsenal FC, FC Barcelona and Juventus FC.
By aligning with the sport’s most prolific athletes, Gatorade continues to expand its growing reach in global football. It is currently the official sports fuel partner for more than 50 football clubs across 12 countries worldwide, including the Brazilian men’s national team, prominent clubs Arsenal FC, Liverpool FC, FC Barcelona and Juventus FC.
The UEFA Champions League Final is the world’s most watched annual sporting event. The final on Saturday (June 6, 2015) was aired in more than 200 countries, reaching an estimated 400 million viewers, with an anticipated average live match viewership of 180 million. The season from the Play-Offs to Final runs over 17 match weeks with a total of 145 games. The league provides more than 110,000 hours of TV content over a season and audiences are significant regionally and globally, with 1.1 billion unique viewers of live match coverage worldwide.
On Wednesday, the draw for the Champions League group stage took place. Arsenal will face Bayern Munich in the Champions League for the third time in four seasons. Manchester United will play PSV Eindhoven, with Dutch striker Memphis Depay set to face his old club. Manchester City face Juventus, Europa League winners Sevilla and German side Borussia Monchengladbach.
Each team will play six fixtures in the group stage, with the first match days taking place on 15 and 16 September.
- Group A: Paris St-Germain, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Malmo
- Group B: PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, VfL Wolfsburg
- Group C: Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray, Astana
- Group D: Juventus, Manchester City, Sevilla, Borussia Monchengladbach
- Group E: Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, AS Roma, BATE Borisov
- Group F: Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Olympiakos, Dinamo Zagreb
- Group G: Chelsea, Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Maccabi Tel-Aviv
- Group H: Zenit St Petersburg, Valencia, Olympique Lyon, Gent