{"id":86961,"date":"2021-06-17T23:07:54","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T23:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=86961"},"modified":"2021-06-18T02:02:07","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T02:02:07","slug":"uefa-intervenes-over-ronaldos-costly-coke-stunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=86961","title":{"rendered":"UEFA intervenes over Ronaldo's costly Coke stunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reacting to a bottle-snatching trend at the European Championship<\/a> started by Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a>, players on the 24 teams have been asked to stop removing strategically placed sponsor drinks from the news conference platforms, UEFA<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo, Paul Pogba and Manuel Locatelli all removed sponsor bottles away from the view of cameras when taking their seats at official media sessions this week.<\/p>\n

Euro 2020 tournament director Martin Kallen said UEFA has "communicated with the teams regarding this matter."<\/p>\n

"It is important because the revenues of the sponsors are important for the tournament and for European football," Kallen said in a briefing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pogba, who is Muslim and does not drink alcohol, objected to the distinctive green bottle of official Euro 2020 beer sponsor Heineken. The beer is marketed as 0.0 percent alcohol.<\/p>\n

Kallen said tournament rules require compliance with UEFA's promises to sponsors, though players with religious objections "don't need to have a bottle there." Media managers at each of the 11 stadiums across Europe should also help with removing beer bottles ahead of the arrival of a player of Muslim faith.<\/p>\n

Pogba had to take questions in the interview room after being named best player in France's 1-0 win over Germany on Tuesday. The player awards are sponsored by the brewer.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo started the trend on Monday at a mandatory pre-game news conference by hiding two Coca-Cola bottles and replacing them with a water bottle, which was also one of the drink maker's brands.<\/p>\n

A drop in Coca-Cola's share price this week was attributed by some to Ronaldo's snub<\/a>, but without any evidence that the two things were connected.<\/p>\n

Locatelli copied the Portugal great on Wednesday after helping Italy beat Switzerland.<\/p>\n

It prompted UEFA to remind officials with the teams that players should respect the sponsors and the contributions they make to European soccer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While UEFA will not impose fines on individual players, Kallen said it was "always a possibility" that national federations get a financial penalty for further incidents.<\/p>\n

The issue is a source of comedy for other teams.<\/p>\n

Scotland midfielder John McGinn quipped "No Coke?" because there were no bottles in the squad's training base interview room, and Belgium coach Roberto Martinez said after a 2-1 victory over Denmark on Thursday that his team loves the drink.<\/p>\n

Coca-Cola is an official sponsor of the Belgian soccer federation.<\/p>\n

All 24 teams will get some of the money paid by Coca-Cola, Heineken and 10 other top-tier sponsors that contribute to UEFA's total tournament revenue of almost $3.1 billion.<\/p>\n

The values of individual sponsor deals are not published, but UEFA got $761 million in sponsor deals from 10 partners at Euro 2016 in France.<\/p>\n

Players also indirectly get money from Euro 2020 commercial income via their national federations and clubs.<\/p>\n

The 24 national federations will share $584 million in UEFA prize money, which typically helps pay player bonuses. The champions can get a maximum of $53 million from UEFA by also winning all three of their group games.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of clubs worldwide also get shares from at least $315 million allocated by UEFA from Euro 2020 revenue as a reward for releasing their players to European national teams. Of that money, $205 million is allocated on a daily rate for about 630 players taking part in the final tournament.<\/p>\n

Euro 2020 revenue will also fund $1.2 billion UEFA has promised to its 55 member federations in annual grants and development project funds for the period of 2020-24.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reacting to a bottle-snatching trend at the European Championship started by Cristiano Ronaldo, players on the 24 teams have been asked to stop removing strategically […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86961"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86963,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86961\/revisions\/86963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}