UEFA appoints worldwide licensing representative

UEFA today announced that Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) has been appointed as worldwide licensing representative for UEFA EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine as well as for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship in 2011 and 2013, and UEFA Women's EURO 2013.

Commenting on the agreement, David Taylor, CEO of UEFA Events SA, said: "UEFA is very pleased to confirm that we will be working again with Warner Bros. to develop a range of products for our national team competitions.

"The experience and creative know-how of Warner Bros. Consumer Products made a valuable contribution to the overall success of previous EURO events in 2004 and 2008. We therefore can look forward to a mutually beneficial business relationship which will add value to UEFA EURO 2012 and assist in our overall objective of promoting the best of European football."

UEFA and WBCP will start working immediately on creative developments including mascot and art programmes, as well as on the selection process to recruit licensees and official retailers.

Pilar Zulueta, executive vice-president and general manager of WBCP in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, outlined the objective of the programme: "WBCP is very honoured and proud of UEFA's choice and we are very excited by the implementation of such a prestigious project.

"It is our intention to bring football fans wherever they are a collection of official licensed products that is broad, creative, compelling and innovative in many aspects. We will look at selecting licensees and official retailers who are able to help deliver this."

UEFA Events is a wholly owned subsidiary of UEFA, created to manage and handle the European governing body's commercial and event operations. It is, among other things, responsible for generating media rights, sponsorship, licensing and hospitality revenue from all professional national team and club competitions, and for managing relationships with all associated commercial partners.