Hyundai adds automotive category to UC3’s growing Champions League portfolio
Hyundai has signed a multi-year global partnership with UC3 covering the UEFA Champions League and other UEFA club competitions, giving the new commercial rights structure another major global brand ahead of the 2027–31 cycle.
Hyundai Motor Company has become an official global partner of the UEFA Champions League in a multi-year agreement that will run from the 2026-27 season until 2030-31.The deal makes Hyundai the Official Automotive Partner of the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Youth League and UEFA Futsal Champions League. Financial terms were not disclosed.UC3 co-managing director Guy-Laurent Epstein said: “We are delighted to welcome Hyundai as an official partner of the UEFA Champions League. Hyundai has a proud history of supporting football at the highest level and a clear belief in its power to bring people together.”“We look forward to building a partnership that brings that shared ambition to life for fans around the world over the coming years.”The agreement is commercially significant for UC3 because it spans the current season and the full 2027–31 rights cycle, giving the joint UEFA and European Football Clubs venture long-term certainty in a major global sponsorship category.UC3 controls the strategic marketing, sales and delivery of commercial rights across UEFA club competitions, including media, sponsorship and licensing.Hyundai joins the commercial programme as UC3 continues to assemble its next-generation sponsorship portfolio around long-term global agreements with major consumer brands.Hyundai president and chief executive José Muñoz said: “Football has been part of Hyundai for almost 30 years. It brings people together like almost nothing else, across languages and borders and generations.”“The UEFA Champions League is an ideal platform to show our beautifully designed vehicles with features fans love.”The deal gives Hyundai a platform to showcase vehicles and consumer technology across one of football’s most valuable global properties, while also providing rights across multiple UEFA competitions rather than the Champions League alone.The partnership also underlines the role of Relevent Football Partners in UC3’s new commercial model. The agency has been appointed to support the global marketing and sale of media, sponsorship and licensing rights across UEFA men’s club competitions.Relevent’s involvement forms part of UC3’s wider effort to maximise the commercial value of its rights portfolio from 2027, alongside long-standing agency TEAM.The Hyundai agreement follows other major commercial additions to the UEFA club competition portfolio, strengthening UC3’s visibility over sponsorship revenues before the next rights cycle begins.The multi-property structure gives Hyundai a five-season runway across elite European club football and provides UC3 with another anchor partner as it builds out the sponsorship inventory underpinning future competition revenues.