KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: At least one new sponsor is confident about the staging and the success of the rescheduled European Championship finals in June and July.

Qatar Airways has signed to become the ‘official airline’ of the Euro tournament set for June 11 to July 11 in Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, London, Munich, Rome and St Petersburg.

Whether all those cities and countries will be open to international travel is unknown but the television coverage will present the airline with a global publicity window in the run-up towards the FIFA World Cup in the Gulf state in November and December next year.

UEFA marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein said the European federation was “delighted” with the deal, the same word used by the airline’s group chief executive Akbar Al Baker.

Other Qatar Airways commercial partners in international football include FIFA, CONMEBOL, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma, Boca Juniors and Bayern Munich.

The other main Euro sponsors are Alipay, Booking.com, Coca-Cola, FedEx, Heineken, Hisense, SOCAR, Takeaway.com, TikTok, Vivo and Volkswagen.

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