By David Owen
April 7 – SNCF, the French national railway company, has signed up as a sponsor of the Euro 2016 football tournament to be played in the country next year. The group has become the competition’s official national transport partner and its fourth official national sponsor.
As at the 1998 World Cup, France’s well-known trains à grande vitesse, or TGVs, are likely to be a popular mode of transport for fans seeking to criss-cross the country to support their teams. Euro 2016 will be the 15th European football championship and the first to feature 24 teams.
Guillaume Pepy, SNCF’s chairman, said that Euro 2016 in France would be “an extraordinary festival of football”. SNCF was “delighted to have this opportunity to play a full role in the event and make a major contribution to the tournament.”
He went on: “We will mobilise our entire team of 200,000 railway workers and partners – on every train, in every station, and at every industrial or commercial site. We are all looking forward to welcoming foreign guests and French supporters.”
SNCF joins FDJ, a lottery, Proman, a recruitment agency, and Crédit Agricole, the bank, as national sponsors. UEFA said it was in discussions with “various other French companies” with a view to appointing the tournament’s last two national partners.
The European football body recently reported revenue of €1.73 billion for its latest financial year to the end of June, a slight improvement on the prior year’s total of €1.7 billion.
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