- The ongoing EURO 2024 is a case in point with a significant portion of sponsors hailing from China, alongside Qatari state-owned entities like Qatar Airways and Visit Qatar. The European Football Federation UEFA’s flagship event, therefore, appears less European on the sponsorship side and more entangled in the geopolitical interests of autocratic regimes.
- Some of these sponsorships raise serious concerns and call UEFA’s credibility and ethical standards into doubt. The sponsors are linked to a wide range of contentious issues such as allegations of mass labour abuses of Uyghurs, pornographic content for minors to illegal subsidisation, political interference, and fundamental human rights violations.
- AliExpress came under fire over the platform’s failure to enforce its own terms of service, posing risks to consumers’ health by selling fake medicine and food as well as dietary supplements. The European Commission also highlighted that AliExpress still allows pornographic material on the platform and that it is possible for minors to access the material. Already in 2022, the Biden Administration added AliExpress to an annual list of markets that the United States identifies as engaging in counterfeiting and copyright violations.
- Nevertheless, UEFA has chosen AliExpress as its sponsor for EURO 2024, and the platform received further backing when David Beckham, one of the most prominent figures in world sports marketing, was announced as their global ambassador in late May 2024.
- UEFA has also entered into partnerships with payment platform Alipay and blockchain company AntChain, run by an Alibaba affiliate company, Ant Group. In a 2024 financial statement, Alibaba disclosed that numerous entities within its business empire are partially owned by Chinese state-owned enterprises. This highlights Alibaba’s extensive ties to the Chinese government and is especially concerning in light of concerns that Alibaba is involved with offering facial recognition software solutions.
- Vivo, a Chinese multinational technology company and EURO 2024 sponsor, is among those who reportedly benefit directly or indirectly from using Uyghur workers.
- BYD, a leading Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer and EURO 2024 sponsor, has also been implicated in using aluminium made by Uyghur forced labour, according to a February 2024 report by Human Rights Watch.
Yeah, I hate anything Chinese too (for all the various reasons ofc), but that seemed very random to me. This was also my first visit to AliExpress.
Edit: Wrong name.