Soccer is consolidating its position as the automotive sector’s most powerful sponsorship platform across EMEA, combining unmatched audience scale with premium visibility assets. From domestic leagues to continental tournaments, brands are prioritising football to balance mass reach, performance storytelling, and long-term brand equity, reshaping how automakers allocate sponsorship budgets amid electrification and intensifying competition, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s latest report, “Sponsorship Sector Report – Automotive EMEA 2025,” reveals that the scale of the category’s presence is clear in the Premier League: in 2025/26, 14 of 20 clubs will have at least one automotive sponsor, a level no other sport in EMEA approaches.
European sports properties account for most of the deal volume across the region. The largest deal across the region is Alpine, Renault’s manufacture of sports cars and racing cars, title sponsorship of Renault F1 Team.
Olivia Snooks, sport analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Soccer is the most-watched sport across most EMEA markets. GlobalData’s 2024 Fan Engagement survey, which was conducted across 20 markets with responses from 30,000 sports fans, showed 70% of European sports fans cite it as their top-watched sport, and the combined reach of domestic leagues, continental competitions, and international tournaments outstrips any rival. As a result, soccer is the main sponsorship battleground for automotive brands seeking mass reach and consistent regional exposure.”
The top deals across the region show automotive brands using sport in three main ways: global reach, performance association, and mass-market engagement. Formula 1 partnerships—such as Alpine with Automobile Alpine and Racing Bulls with Honda, are classic performance and technology platforms, highlighting engineering excellence, hybrid innovation, and premium positioning.
Soccer deals, such as Bayern Munich and Juventus with Jeep, offer broad EMEA reach, suiting high-volume brands and models. Golf and cycling sit at the other end of the spectrum, targeting a more affluent, influential, predominantly male audience.
Snooks continues: “These deals show how automotive brands use sport differently as the industry evolves. Some partnerships build or refresh brands and support new launches (e.g., Ineos leveraging elite cycling to promote the Grenadier 4×4; Alpine using F1 to position itself as a standalone performance brand). Others defend established market positions (e.g., Volkswagen and Audi in German/European football, Jeep with Juventus, Hankook with the UEFA Europa League). The high annual fees reflect long-term brand building and scarce, premium EMEA rights more than short-term sales.”
The landscape is led by high-volume sponsors like Skoda, BMW and Toyota, as traditional car makers, tire companies and performance brands spread investment across multiple sports—mainly football and motorsport but increasingly cycling and esports—to reach fans across many markets. Skoda’s high deal volume reflects a focus on mass-participation and endurance events, especially cycling, to build an accessible, value-led image, while BMW and Toyota combine major global assets with local partnerships to showcase EV technology, reliability and mobility and target specific regional fan bases.
Snooks concludes: “Volkswagen is the auto sector’s biggest sports spender in 2025, reflecting its mass-market need for broad, cross-market visibility. It is using major properties—especially football and top-tier events—to support its shift to electric and sustainable mobility, via deals with VfL Wolfsburg, the German FA, LaLiga, Lega Serie A, and the UEFA Women’s European Championship.”
