Considering the global appeal of the UEFA Euro 2024 as one of the world’s most watched football competitions, it’s no surprise that brands are paying good money to be associated with it. The list of official global sponsors of this year’s tournament includes brands from all over the world as companies from host country Germany (Adidas, Lidl, Engelbert Strauss) are joined by brands from China, Qatar, Austria, France, the Netherlands and the United States.

According to UEFA, Euro 2020, the latest edition of the quadrennial tournament, generated €1.88 billion in revenue, with commercial rights including UEFA’s sponsorship program accounting for €520 million of that total. Combined with global media rights, which make up the lion’s share of UEFA’s earnings related to the Euros, commercial rights accounted for nearly 90 percent of the association’s total revenue from the tournament played in 2021 due to the pandemic.

So with brands collectively paying hundreds of millions to be associated with the Euros, how well do consumers recognize them? Ahead of the tournament, the answer is so-so. When TGM Research asked more than 10,000 people to name the brand that first comes to their mind when thinking about Euro 2024, Adidas, Nike and Coca-Cola topped the list of replies. While Adidas and Coca-Cola are in fact official sponsors of the competition, Nike is not, nor is it associated with UEFA in another way. The same is true for Mercedes and BMW, which probably made the list due to them being among the best-known brands from host country Germany. And then there’s a third category of brands making the list, brands that are long-time partners of UEFA and its other competitions, but not official sponsors of Euro 2024. These include Heineken, an official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League and Visa, sponsor of UEFA’s women’s competitions and a long-time partner of FIFA, football’s global governing body.