UEFA referee sponsorship goes to workwear brand Strauss

UEFA has sold an advertising space nobody had sold before. The German workwear brand Strauss becomes the first sponsor of its match officials. Football’s European body announced the deal on 4 September, days before the Champions League league phase begins.

Strauss logo goes on referee sleeves from 2026-27

The brand gets a patch on the sleeve of referee shirts. That starts with the 2026-27 Champions League season. From 2027-28 the logo also appears on the back of training tops and stadium jackets.

The deal covers the men’s and women’s Champions League, the Europa League, the Conference League, Euro 2028 and the Women’s Euro in 2029. It runs to the end of the 2028-29 season. Neither side gave a price.

Strauss says referees are more visible than ever

Chief executive Henning Strauss told City AM that referees are “more visible than ever”. That is the whole argument for the deal. Video review means the camera now stays on the referee for long stretches of a match, so the sleeve is on screen far more than it used to be.

UEFA refereeing director Roberto Rosetti described Strauss as a partner that values the work of match officials. Buyers of the package also get to visit the video review centre in Nyon.

Hisense drops back to Euro 2028 only

The same announcement showed a sponsor going the other way. Hisense had backed all UEFA men’s national team competitions for more than a decade, in a deal Sportcal put at over 31 million dollars a year. From now on the Chinese electronics maker is a partner of Euro 2028 alone.

Sponsors keep buying parts of sport nobody had priced

Naming rights and shirt fronts are largely taken, so brands look for gaps. In Poland, Tauron paid to put its name on the top volleyball league and pushed the old name out. On social platforms, TikTok renewed its NFL deal and opened club content to advertisers.

Buying the referee is a different bet. Match officials are argued about after every round, and a brand sitting on their sleeve is attached to those arguments too. Sponsors already know how quickly that can turn, as the leak of a crypto sponsorship deal at Poland’s Olympic body showed last week. For Strauss, whose customers are builders and tradespeople, a person in workwear doing a hard job in public may be worth that risk.