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They celebrate in the Spanish national kit, proudly display the Three Lions shirt or paint their face in the national colors of Germany. In the European Football Championship, which is being held these days in the German stadiums with the cooperation of generous sponsors, the influencers are present. But they face criticism from many fans, who argue that, while they themselves have paid for a ticket, they are being reduced to mere extras for commercials.

One of the most popular influencers is ViscaBarca, who has almost 1.9 million followers on YouTube. He uploads Vlogs every now and then. These are digital diaries in the form of videos, which describe what is happening at the EURO and give football fans the feeling that they are also on the field. But YouTubers are not limited to a simple description, but experience the emotions and fluctuations of the match in an intense way. Their tactics are considered rather efficient, as the listings on YouTube attract hundreds of thousands of clicks.

Criticism from fans

However, many sports fans do not get along well with influencers. They claim that they get their seats in the stadium and even with free entry from sponsors. And while the “genuine” sports fans pay dearly for their ticket, they are reduced to simple extras for the advertising shoots of the influencers. As Thomas Keesen, a representative of the supporters’ association, says, the anger is even more intense when we talk about games of Borussia Dortmund, Schalke or Bayern Munich, where “the stadiums are always full and tickets are always hard to find”.

The Brazilian influencer Tomer Savoia was seen at the Copa America

But even in EURO 2024, inseparability prevails. Despite this, ViscaBarca has stated that he attends all the matches of the National Football League and travels around the country in a motorhome, filled with advertisements from his sponsors. The German News Agency (dpa) asked the management of ViscaBarca how the YouTuber in question procures his tickets, but did not receive an answer.

Two other YouTubers, Trymacs and EliasN97, openly talk about “partnerships with promotional content” in the videos they post. But they do not specify whether they themselves procure their tickets in the same way as ordinary sports fans. It is of course taken for granted, based on the rules of the advertising “game”, that a part of the tickets is anyway “reserved” for sponsors and partners of the European Football Association (UEFA) and they alone decide to whom the specific tickets will be allocated.

Advertising cooperation is a “common phenomenon”.

Christoph Bertling, a professor at the Cologne Sports Academy, believes that partnerships with advertising content are now “common practice”. For the organizers the big advantage is that this way they “build” their credibility while simultaneously reaching a large number of potential customers, without maintaining their own social media account.

For its part, UEFA states that during the European Championship sponsors “are free” to work with influencers of their choice, but does not disclose the terms of the collaboration. UEFA officials say only that influencers will have to adhere to “certain specifications”, for example they are not allowed to broadcast live from the stadiums themselves.

For Thomas Keesen, who represents a traditional generation of fans, there should be a clear separation between fans and influencers. “You come to the stadium, because you are interested in this match? Then you go to the stands, along with the rest of the fans,” says Keesen. “You come to the stadium to work and to make money from this match? Then your place is in the press box…”

Edited by: Yiannis Papadimitriou