UEFA Euro 2004: Letting sales through the net

UEFA’s assumption that all fans can shop happily in English or Portuguese is surely wide of the mark.

The Site

Euro2004.com is the official site of the European Football Championship currently involving 16 national teams in Portugal. Available in nine languages and an ‘accessible’ version the site has news and statistics from the tournament as it progresses along with online games and fan polls.

As well as all this free content the site has two revenue-generating features: a paid-for audio and video Action channel and an online shop. Both have prominent links on the home page of each language version of the site, but while the links are in the national language they all lead to a separate shopping site (euro2004shop.com) that is available in English and Portuguese only.

The Takeaway

Tournament organiser UEFA’s official site has already attracted more than the 129 million page views recorded for the whole of the finals four years ago. With visitors from more than 200 countries it shows how universal a ‘language’ football is, but UEFA’s assumption that all fans can shop happily in English or Portuguese is surely wide of the mark.

By including Korean and Japanese among the languages in which the site is available UEFA is consciously reaching out to big consumer markets beyond its European homelands (fans for a majority of the 16 teams taking part have no content in their own language). Perhaps it was considered an investment too far even though the shop will continue to operate after the tournament. But a translated ‘featured products’ page highlighting the most popular or best-selling lines would surely have paid for itself in extra income and goodwill.

Merchandising is one of the biggest and fastest-growing revenue streams in the world of football at club and national level. UEFA clearly aims to cash in on this, but like many of the teams so far it is not making the most of its opportunities.

First published on 17 June, 2004