Starting today until October 22nd UniCredit will bring the UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour back to Italy. Nine cities will host the Tour, starting with an opening ceremony in Milan in Piazza del Duomo, with a grand finale in Rome. Football fans will have the chance to take a picture with the trophy and meet famous football players.
The UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour presented by UniCredit is back in Italy, after three years. The fourth edition of the Trophy Tour is being kicked off today in Milan, after which the trophy will be touring through the whole country.
On its way to the final destination in Rome (October 19th -22nd), the red Trophy Tour show truck will stop in Turin, Bologna, Palermo and Naples where a free-of-charge exhibition opens its doors to the public to present the most sought-after trophy, embedded in the fascinating world of Europe's most prestigious club football competition.
Stop-over events, offering the possibility to the public to take a personal picture with the trophy, will take place in Verona, Venice and Florence.
With this year's eye-catching stadium look of the exhibition, the UniCredit Arena, the UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour has an interesting program to offer: highlights for football fans include the chance to take a picture with the trophy, available online afterwards, and with famous players such as Cafu, Luís Figo and Ruud Gullit.
Furthermore, a football youth tournament, the UniCredit Cup, will take place each Sunday at the tour's six main stops. Thirty two teams with children born in 2000/2001 who belong to teams of Centro Sportivo Italiano, a qualified and valuable national sport center training kids in different sports, will be participating in the tournament.
"We decided to bring again the UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour in Italy as it is a strategic country for our Group with more than 45% of our business activities" - says Paolo Fiorentino, UniCredit Deputy General Manager and Chief Operating Officer. "There is also an important historical aspect in this decision as the Tour will touch cities where our Group has strong roots. It's not an everyday event to see the trophy in the main square of your town, with the chance to take a picture with it. After touring across Europe in the previous years, we are now bringing back the Tour in Italy, one of the most successful football nations in the UEFA Champions League, with a strong sponsorship awareness among viewers. In this way we are bringing the trophy to the people making our brand more visible".
Luís Figo, UniCredit Ambassador for the UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour in Milan, who will be part of the tour for the fourth time states, "The Trophy Tour is the top of the top, it brings back good memories and emotions. It is a magical event and I'm excited to be part of it again this year".
David Taylor, CEO of UEFA Events SA says "The UEFA Champions League has a long and distinguished heritage and is the pinnacle of European club football. Italian clubs, coaches and players have played a huge part in building that heritage and the trophy itself represents the ultimate prize of the competition. By taking the trophy with UniCredit to a number of Italian cities, Italian football fans will have the chance to spend an unforgettable moment with the trophy and dream of future success."
The UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour not only marks the beginning of the UEFA Champions League season 2012/2013, it also initiates a new sponsorship cycle 2012-2015 which heralds the start of newly negotiated rights for UniCredit. Among others, the right to use the new designation "Official Bank of the UEFA Champions League" creates a close link between the sponsorship and UniCredit's core business as a financial institution. So does the newly negotiated right to produce the "Official UEFA Champions League Match Coin provided by UniCredit" which can be used by the referee for the official coin toss before every match. The Official Match Coin will be collected in an "Official Coin Collection".
In coordination with the Trophy Tour event, two unique offers are launched by UniCredit, enabling visitors the chance to win tickets for the UEFA Champions League Final 2013 in London. At each of the nine stops of the tour, visitors will receive a coupon that they can bring to a UniCredit branch between today and 30th November entitling them to request the exclusive UEFA Champions League version of the Genius Card by MasterCard with no issuing costs. The Genius Card, a nominative and rechargeable prepaid card, allows the withdrawal of money, bank transfers, crediting salary and much more. In order to join the contest and to have the possibility of winning two tickets for the 2013 Final in London, one has only to charge 100 euro. If a Super Genius account is opened in-branch between today and 30th November the exclusive UEFA Champions League version of the UniCredit Click by MasterCard prepaid card can be requested with no issuing costs and the registrant will automatically take part in the ticket draw.
Having visited 48 cities in 13 countries between 2009 and 2011, the annual UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour has become one of the most important sponsorship assets for UniCredit, bringing the trophy and the football spirit of the UEFA Champions League to over 320,000 football fans across Europe. With this year's Tour UniCredit aims at surpassing last years results for contacts, highligthing the success of its engagement within the UEFA Champions League.
More information about the official sponsorship is available at unicredit.eu/champions and facebook.com/UniCreditChampions
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Milan, September 13th 2012
[1] Access to the event' pictures available at www.portablepast.com; User: media, Password: trophytour
UniCredit
UniCredit is a major international financial institution with strong roots in 22 European countries and an overall international network present in approximately 50 markets, 9,400 branches and 158,000 employees as of June 2012.
In the CEE region, UniCredit operates the largest international banking network with nearly 3,800 branches.
The Group operates in the following countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.