Qualifying for the UEFA Champions League as club means greater commercial returns and being more appealing to players and sponsors. Sponsorship deals are now often dependent on the qualification, or lack thereof, for Champions League football. Such is the case in the deal between Adidas and Manchester United.

Champions League football provides extra value to sponsors. Following up on last year’s articles about kit sponsors and shirt sponsors in the Champions League, here is an overview of the 2016/17 Champions League teams’ sponsors.

32 teams, 9 different kit sponsors

The 32 Champions League teams are sponsored by nine different sports brands. That is one more than last season. Apart from sporting good giants Nike, Adidas and Puma, teams are sponsored by New Balance, Kappa, Macron, Jako, Umbro and Under Armour.

Just like the 2015/16 season, Adidas has the most Champions League teams in its portfolio. With 12 teams, the German brand sponsors double the amount of teams compared to Nike (six). Both brands sponsor two teams less than last year.

Puma sponsors four Champions League teams including 2015/16 Premier League Champions Leicester City and runner-up Arsenal.

With Sevilla, Celtic and Porto, New Balance sponsors three teams that are active in three different (the Spanish, Scottish and Portuguese) national competitions.

Compared to last season, Joma and Jartazi no longer sponsor a Champions League team. While Jako, Macron and Under Armour have entered the biggest European football club competition.

Adidas vs. Nike vs. Puma

69% of the Champions League teams this season are sponsored by one of the three big market players Adidas, Nike or Puma. 20 of the 48 ties (40 of the 96 group stage matches) are between teams wearing one of these brands. The frequency of matchups between these brands in the group stage is:

Adidas-Adidas: 6 ties (12 matches)
Nike-Nike: 1 tie (2 matches)
Puma-Puma: 0 ties (0 matches)

Adidas-Puma: 6 ties (12 matches)
Nike-Adidas: 5 ties (10 matches)
Nike-Puma: 2 ties (4 matches)

Shirt sponsors 2016/17 Champions League

There are 24 different companies sponsoring Champions League teams. Five teams have no brand on their jerseys.

Most sponsors are from the airline industry (6 out of 32). Emirates (with their slogan Fly Emirates) sponsors four Champions League teams – Arsenal (England), PSG (France), Real Madrid (Spain) and Benfica (Portugal) – and is the only company that sponsors multiple teams.

The 24 companies are located in 19 countries across the world from Italy to Japan. 12 teams have sponsorship partners from their own country, including all four Bundesliga teams.