UEFA: Alipay (CHN), partner of national team competitions, including Euro 2020, from 2018-2026

Alipay, a Chinese online payment platform, has become the "official global payment partner" of national team competitions organised by UEFA between the 2018-2026 period (eight years), on 09/11/2018. This is a global partnership, the first level in the sponsorship hierarchy of the governing body of European football.

Alipay a subsidiary of Ant Financial, itself a financial subsidiary of Alibaba Group, joins Booking.com and Volkswagen as a first level partner. The value of the agreement with Volkswagen is at least €40m per season.

The agreement includes Euro 2020, which will be held in 13 cities in 13 countries under UEFA jurisdiction as well as 2024 in Germany. It also covers qualification matches for Euro 2020 and 2024, the UEFA zone qualifiers for the 2022 and 2026 World Cups and the 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025 finals of the Nations League.

"Alipay's first four-year cycle (2018-2022) as a UEFA national team competitions sponsor will involve a total of eight competitions, spanning 420 matches and having an estimated total live audience of 7.4 billion people. With over 700 million…