Uefa plans new blockbuster match to kick off Champions League

A statement from UCS and marketing partners Relevent Football said: “In a first for the Uefa Champions League, the 2027-28 season will commence with a marquee Tuesday night clash: the reigning champions will get their title defence underway in a standalone fixture in front of their home fans.”

It is designed to appeal to the global streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney and Apple, with the global rights available for the first pick of Tuesday night matches. It is understood Netflix and Amazon have already been sounded out to gauge interest.

Uefa expects to earn at least €5billion (£4.4billion) a year from the new deals — a 10 per cent rise on the income for this three-year period.

The new tender for European club competitions was announced on Monday with bids for the rights needing to be submitted by November 18.

The sale of Uefa’s rights for the other Champions League, Europa League and Conference League matches will allow broadcasters to bid for multiple markets at the same time, and for deals running for four years instead of three. That means, for example, that Discovery/TNT Sports — which holds the UK rights at the moment — or Sky could bid for the rest of the games in all the five major markets: UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and France.

Both Discovery/TNT Sports and Sky are expected to bid for the next UK rights.

Guy-Laurent Epstein, Uefa’s marketing director, said: “By introducing a more flexible and globally focused approach, we aim to attract a broader range of partners and ensure Uefa’s club competitions continue to lead the way in sports media innovation.”

Amazon already shows one Champions League match per round in the UK, Germany and Italy, while Apple has the global rights to Major League Soccer.

Netflix has yet to enter the market for sports rights in a big way but has shown an NFL American football match at Christmas and the Mike Tyson v Jake Paul boxing match, which was a major success for the platform in terms of viewers — it hit a peak of 65 million streams. Netflix has also bought the US rights for Fifa’s 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cup.

Uefa has previously sold the rights every three years but Relevent secured a six-year deal with CBS for the US rights from 2024-30 worth $1.5billion (£1.12billion).

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