Champions Innovate: Munich 2025
miércoles, 18 de septiembre de 2024
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What is Champions Innovate?
Champions Innovate is a programme designed to solve modern, meaningful and relevant challenges identified by UEFA and the host city of the Champions League final.
Following a wide-ranging stakeholder consultation process, the UEFA Innovation Hub launched this proprietary programme last season, culminating in a successful first edition around the 2024 final in London.
The aim of the programme is to foster collaboration between commercial partners, innovative companies and the city (and national association) hosting the climax of the European club season, with the objective of leaving a lasting, positive impact.
Why?
- To leave a positive and lasting local legacy around the 2025 Champions League final
- To bring commercial partners together with the world’s most promising entrepreneurs
- To find the next champions of innovation to help develop football on and off the pitch
- To collaboratively find innovative solutions to address current and meaningful challenges
Overarching challenge
Champions Innovate works with commercial partners and the host city to set the main challenge for the edition, aligning it to their strategic priorities. For this season, the central challenge is:
"How can the UEFA Champions League final in Munich be used to promote healthier lifestyles among Munich's citizens and/or encourage greater participation in physical activity?"
The challenges
Mastercard
Context 💳
Access to sports is far from guaranteed; many are unable to participate due to financial constraints, a lack of proper facilities, and deeper societal issues like discrimination. For many, these factors create significant obstacles to participation in organised sports. Additionally, cultural and systemic biases often further marginalise underrepresented groups, preventing equal opportunities in both amateur and professional sports.
Mastercard is committed to ensuring everyone has the opportunity to participate in and enjoy sports in an accessible, safe, and fun environment. As a proud, long-standing sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, Mastercard shares a vision to harness the power of football to connect, inspire, and serve as a force for good.
Question 🧐
How can we leverage the UEFA Champions League final to support and inspire the citizens of Munich with a purposeful digital innovation that makes the sport, especially football, more inclusive and accessible for everyone?
Solution 🛠
Start-ups interested in responding to this challenge needed to ensure that the solution:
- Proposes an authentic and innovative approach or solution to make sports accessible and inclusive for everyone without embracing opportunism, aiming to reduce or significantly eliminate economic, physical, and other barriers that hinder full participation, particularly for disadvantaged and underrepresented individuals or groups
- Not only leverages the platform of the 2025 UEFA Champions League final in Munich, but also considers how to tap into the momentum and passion of the competition throughout the whole season
- Considers the existing technology and initiatives of Mastercard, speaking about the digital payments, data solutions and other tools or programmes
- Has a potential for scalability in other cities of Germany and Europe and/or the wider sport community
- Results in positive, tangible, and measurable impact
- Uses the Player Mascot programme to further elevate, engage or showcase the solution with fans (optional)
adidas
Context 👟
As one of sport's biggest annual occasions, the UEFA Champions League final naturally captures the attention of hundreds of millions of viewers across the world. For younger generations of fans, this passion and enthusiasm has been experienced more and more through screens and digital platforms over recent years.
adidas is looking to find innovative ways to convert the experience of fandom and excitement of the UEFA Champions League final beyond a digital or passive fan engagement to participate in more physical activities and potentially even fall in love with the physical sport of football.
Especially for younger generations, these formative and memorable experiences with sport can change habits, mindsets and lifestyles permanently. Such an experience provides an opportunity to fall in love with football and sport – as a fan and lifelong athlete themselves.
Question 🧐
How can we effectively convert the excitement generated by the UEFA Champions League final by making more fans fall in love with practising football and sport?
Solution 🛠
Start-ups interested in responding to this challenge needed to ensure that:
- The pilot to be created has to be experimented in Munich, host city of the 2025 UEFA Champions League final but have applicable learnings for other future host cities
- The solution should not consider building or funding new infrastructure
- The solution to be created needs to be experimented in a football context but should be adaptable to other sports
- The pilot to be created should not be integrated in the adidas or UEFA digital ecosystem but should be developed as a stand-alone white label solution
Benefits for start-ups
These are some of the benefits the programme offers to start-ups:
Selected start-ups are granted a financial award of €50,000, with the intention of offsetting the costs associated with executing the pilot programme.
Selected start-ups benefit from exclusive access to experimental platforms facilitated by affiliations with the City of Munich and UEFA.
Selected start-ups benefit from the expertise and mentorship of experienced professionals.
Selected start-ups participate in three in-person workshop sessions scheduled in Munich, actively engaging and gaining valuable insights.
Selected start-ups have the opportunity to connect with a valuable network that includes investors, media organisations, and well-known brands, creating possibilities for collaborations and avenues for growth.
Selected start-ups benefit from extensive media coverage, heightened visibility, and a spotlight on their innovative efforts.
Selected start-ups have the opportunity of presenting the pilot during an exclusive event hosted in Munich.
Timeline
Champions Innovate 2024/25 ⏱
Eligibility requirements
The start-up should have been in operation for a minimum of two years.
At the time of application, start-ups must have developed a minimum viable product (MVP) at the very least.
Selection criteria
The proposed solution brings an innovative approach in creating value to the stakeholders involved in the delivery of a major sports event such as the UEFA Champions League final.
The proposed solution has the potential to create lasting value in the long term (i.e. post UEFA Champions League final 2025).
The proposed solution has a tangible social impact, and includes methods or tools to measure it.
The team in place has the relevant skills, experience and expertise to deliver the project proposed in response to the challenge.
The team shows a deep understanding of the challenge and is able to demonstrate how their solution is a relevant response.
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