Heineken Hosts Biggest UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour in Africa
11.5.2022 09:59:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
In its continuing effort to bring the UEFA Champions League (UCL) experience closer to more football fans around the world, Heineken has staged its most elaborate Trophy Tour in Africa yet. The 10-day tour, which ended on April 13 in Abuja, Nigeria, ahead of the 2022 final match on May 28, included several public events that featured the UCL trophy at major stops in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. Fans from Rwanda and Congo Brazzaville also attended the tour in Nigeria and DRC respectively.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220509006222/en/
Clarence Seedorf on tour with the UEFA Champions League trophy in Ethiopia, as part of the pan-African tour, courtesy of Heineken.
The events around the tour included open-truck city parades, novelty matches with local celebrities, UCL quarter final match viewings, fan meet and greets, photo sessions, media rounds, Afrobeats concerts, and visits to government ministries in charge of football.
Heineken, sold in 192 countries around the world, has been a sponsor of the UEFA Champions League since 2005 and the company’s leadership said its Africa-wide trophy tour for the 2021/2022 season was structured to reach 50,000 Africans directly while an estimated 10 million more are reached via media coverage.
A highlight of the trophy tour was a Heineken-sponsored football match in Lagos, Nigeria. It pitted Nigerian music superstars and football legends against senior staff of Nigerian Breweries, which is the local Heineken brewer, and the Trophy Tour Ambassador, professional coach and former Dutch international midfielder, Clarence Seedorf.
BET Awards-winning Afrobeats star Davido captained Team Nigeria, which had ex-Nigerian internationals Austin Jay Jay Okocha, Daniel Amokachi, and Taribo West. Also on the squad were rapper M.I. Abaga, R&B singer Darey, and Nigerian Breweries Marketing Director, Emmanuel Oriakhi. Seedorf led Team Heineken, playing, among others, Nigerian Breweries Finance Director, Rob Kleinjan; and the company’s Supply Chain Director, Martin Kochl.
The novelty match preceded an Afrobeats concert that was headlined by African superstar, Davido and Peruzzi, another topflight Nigerian singer. Members of the Heineken management team and Seedorf then met with the Nigerian Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, at the MKO Abiola stadium in Abuja, the country’s capital.
The Union of European Football Associations, the umbrella organisation for 55 national football associations across Europe, organizes the Champions League as an annual competition among top-division football clubs. The 2022 final match is slated for May 28 at the Stade de France in Paris.
“The goal of the Trophy Tour is to inspire a new generation of African footballers and appreciate fans for their love of the UEFA Champions League and Heineken,” said Heineken’s Senior Global Director, Bram Westerbrink.
The continent’s importance to the growth of football and the UCL is evident, Bram also noted. Several European clubs in the English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German leagues have notable African following, with many of the fans organising meetups and celebrations when their favourite teams record tournament successes. With more than 100 Africans currently playing professionally, over 25 Champions League winners from Africa, and about 300 million African fans, football has taken hold as the most popular sport on the continent.
“This is why Heineken is proud to celebrate its association with the UEFA Champions League,” said Hans Erik Tuijt, Director, Global Heineken Sponsorships, adding that Heineken has the highest awareness on the continent as a sponsor of the UEFA Champions League.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220509006222/en/
Contact information
Enitan Kehinde
Enitan@bhmng.uk
+447899410249
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Cegid Closes Acquisition of Shine to Create Europe's First Complete AI-Driven Platform for SMBs and Accountants8.6.2026 10:28:00 EEST | Press release
Cegid, a European leader in cloud management solutions for professionals in the finance (treasury, tax, ERP), human resources (payroll, talent management), accountancy, retail and entrepreneurship sectors, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Shine. The transaction creates the first fully integrated, cloud-native and AI-driven financial hub for SMBs and accounting professionals in Europe. Shine – a fast-growing European fintech unicorn providing electronic invoicing, accounting, business accounts, and payroll software to small and medium-sized businesses across Europe – brings more than 400,000 SMB customers, a strong brand, and a scalable technology stack, expanding Cegid’s reach in key European markets. The consolidated group will serve more than one million SMBs and 15,000 accountants across France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. Shine’s combination with Cegid and its full ecosystem represents the formation of Europe’s first 100% clou
ARIS Announced as Exclusive Process Intelligence Launch Partner for AWS European Sovereign Cloud8.6.2026 10:00:00 EEST | Press release
ARIS, the process context foundation for enterprise AI deployment, today announced its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to support organizations navigating increasingly complex digital sovereignty requirements while accelerating AI-driven transformation. Many European enterprises face growing pressure to ensure sensitive operational and business data remains under European governance and regulatory control. Through the AWS European Sovereign Cloud (ESC), they will be able to combine advanced cloud and AI capabilities with enhanced operational separation, EU-based governance, and strict data residency controls. ARIS will support customers looking to operationalize AI safely and at scale within these boundaries by providing the process intelligence, governance, and operational context required for trusted enterprise AI deployment. “AI is moving rapidly from experimentation to operational execution, but organisations cannot scale AI without trust, visibility, and control,” sai
Cosylab Launches PlanOne™ Treatment Planning System for Particle Therapy8.6.2026 09:00:00 EEST | Press release
Cosylab today announced the commercial launch of PlanOne™, a treatment planning system for particle therapy, bringing physics-accurate, radiobiologically informed planning and a unified clinical workflow into a single environment. PlanOne™ is FDA 510(k) cleared. "PlanOne™ began with listening. Over the years, our work on control systems in radiation oncology has put us in direct, ongoing contact with medical physicists and clinical teams at some of the leading facilities in the world," said Mark Pleško, CEO of Cosylab. "Our partners have been clear on what matters most for particle therapy: physics accuracy they can defend, clinical confidence at the point of plan approval, and a platform built to grow with AI and adaptive workflows. We designed PlanOne™ around those three priorities, and we'll keep developing it together with the clinical community that helped shape it." Physics-accurate, radiobiologically informed planning PlanOne™ is built on a GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo dose engin
BitGo MENA Launches Regulated Electronic Trading, Delivering Full Suite Trading Services to the Region8.6.2026 07:00:00 EEST | Press release
BitGo MENA FZE (“BitGo MENA”), a subsidiary of BitGo Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BTGO) (“BitGo”), the digital asset infrastructure company, today announced the launch of electronic trading in the Middle East and North African (MENA). With this launch, clients can now access a comprehensive trading solution combining BitGo MENA’s established over-the-counter (OTC) trading offering with institutional-grade electronic execution, all operating under BitGo MENA’s Broker-Dealer license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). The launch further expands BitGo MENA’s regulated product suite under VARA’s oversight, marking another step in the region’s continued buildout of institutional digital asset infrastructure amid growing demand for integrated execution and custody solutions. “The Middle East and North Africa has quickly become one of the most exciting regions in the world for digital assets, with regulators, institutions, and innovators moving with real purpose,” said Mike Bels
Vertex Presents New Data on ALYFTREK ® at European Cystic Fibrosis Conference5.6.2026 19:00:00 EEST | Press release
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) today announced data demonstrating the potentially transformative impact of treating cystic fibrosis (CF) with ALYFTREK ® (vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor) in children ages 2 to 5, as well as data from 96-week interim analyses of two open-label extension studies of ALYFTREK in children 6 to 11 years and people 12 years and older demonstrating the long-term safety and efficacy profile of the medicine. The data, presented at the European Cystic Fibrosis Conference, show children ages 2 to 5 with vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor-responsive genotypes including those who are homozygous for the F508del mutation (F/F) and those who have F508del/minimal function mutations (F/MF)on ALYFTREK had further improvement in CFTR function from a TRIKAFTA ® baseline as measured by sweat chloride (SwCl), with 65% having achieved SwCl <30 mmol/L after treatment with ALYFTREK. Vertex also presented Phase 3 data of children ages 1 to <2 with TRIKAF
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom