Hankook Tires has renewed its sponsorship deal with the UEFA Europa League, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. The South Korean tire brand will remain an official partner of Europe’s second highest club football competition for another three years until ’18. At one time during the negotiation process, Hankook was in the running to become the main partner of the Europa League, the source said. However, in the end the main sponsorship went to FedEx and Hankook settled on an expanded partnership package that includes assets including LED signing, tickets and hospitality. Hankook’s extension with UEFA follows a trend that has seen other tire brands such as Bridgestone, Kumho and Yokohama sign lucrative football deals. The deal, which will commence on July 1, is expected to be officially announced in the next several days. The source said that Hankook’s new deal with the competition represents an increase over its previous one and has a mid-to-high seven-figure value. The tire brand joins FedEx, UniCredit, Enterprise and adidas as official partners of the Europa League for the ’15-18 rights cycle. UEFA’s commercial partner TEAM Marketing, which negotiated the renewal with Hankook, will announce one more partner for the competition in the next couple of weeks. The source said that the final partner will be the “first ever” in the respective category for the Europa League.
