CTT will be an event sponsor for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final round in Portugal this summer.

First Portuguese sponsor
Following the announcement by UEFA and the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) on Wednesday, the CTT postal and communications company becomes the first Portuguese sponsor to join an élite group of international partners who will be represented at the tournament from 23 May to 4 June. So far, these partners include Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, Ford, JVC, MasterCard and McDonald's. Another two companies will be revealed shortly.

Happy to return
"UEFA and the FPF are pleased to announce CTT as the first Portuguese sponsor on board for this prestigious footballing event, and we are happy to be returning to Portugal so soon after the highly-successful UEFA EURO 2004™," said the European body. The U21 finals feature young players, many of whom have already made the breakthrough at major European clubs and are already part of senior national-team squads.

Promotion help
"We had a highly successful senior national-team final tournament in Portugal with UEFA EURO 2004™, and now we return with the U21 championship and the stars of the future," said UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson. "We are therefore extremely pleased that a prestigious national company such as CTT is backing the tournament, and we count on them to help us promote the event within Portugal as well as sell match tickets for the six venues of this tournament."

Six venues
The championship will take place at six locations, four of which were built specifically for the resoundingly successful UEFA EURO 2004™. The six U21 venues are Agueda, Aveiro, Barcelos, Braga, Guimaraes and Porto (Bessa stadium). Eight national sides are taking part in the event - Portugal, France, Serbia and Montenegro and Germany (Group A), and Italy, Denmark, Ukraine and the Netherlands (Group B).

Top companies plan
UEFA says it plans to have a Portuguese Club of top local companies involved in the final tournament, and further event sponsor and National Supporter packages are still available. For further information on either of these packages please contact: Sponsorship@uefa.ch.