June 1 – China may not yet be a major force on the international football pitch. Still, the country’s love affair with the global game remains strong, and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has just inked one of the most significant European football deals to underline that point.
Through a multi-year agreement unveiled today, Alibaba becomes the global AI, cloud computing, and e-commerce partner of UEFA, spanning both the 2028 UEFA European Championships and the men’s club competition cycle from 2027-28 through 2032-33.
The club competition element covers the Champions League, Europa League, Conference League, and the UEFA Super Cup. The partnership will activate through three Alibaba brands (Alibaba Cloud, Qwen, and AliExpress) with the aim of delivering “intelligent innovations” across UEFA’s flagship competitions and elevating the overall fan experience.
Joe Tsai, chair of Alibaba Group, said: “I am excited to work with UEFA to realise the vision of this multi-year partnership, where we will commit our cloud computing, full-stack AI, and global e-commerce capabilities to support UEFA and UC3 to deliver these iconic competitions to global fans.”
Tsai also pointed to how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way supporters experience the game: “AI is changing sports, and it is changing the fan experience. At the Paris Olympics and the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, we saw how AI-powered 360-degree replay technology could create a more immersive viewing experience for fans.
“The part that excites me most is the possibility of using AI to transform the fan experience. We look forward to using our Qwen large language model to help fans access information about football, clubs, and players in more interactive ways.”
UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin added: “Their expertise in artificial intelligence, cloud computing technology, and e-commerce will support UEFA’s commitment to thoughtful innovation and to enhancing the experience of supporters around the world.”
The agreement is a sign of where Chinese commercial ambition is heading. While the country’s domestic topflight has cooled considerably from its mid-2010s spending peak, China still has an appetite for the global game and it is deepening. For Alibaba, European football offers the most powerful global stage available. For UEFA, the deal adds long-cycle AI, cloud, and commerce muscle to a commercial portfolio increasingly built around the world’s most influential technology players.
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