NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) will be the official IT partner of UEFA EURO 2004™ in Portugal. The announcement was made in Tokyo by UEFA Honorary Treasurer and Executive Committee member Mathieu Sprengers and NTT Com senior executive vice-president Shuji Tomita. 

First-time partner
The agreement means that NTT Com, which is currently a partner for the UEFA Cup final and UEFA Super Cup, will be a partner for the final round of European national-team football's most prestigious tournament for the first time. It comes as the official UEFA website, uefa.com, launches a Japanese version in an extension of its multilingual operation.

Valuable infrastructure
"As the official website hosting partner, NTT will provide valuable technology infrastructure for the official UEFA EURO 2004™ website under the NTT/VERIO brand," a UEFA statement said. "The integrated marketing package will give NTT Com perimeter signage, commercial airtime opportunities, internet rights and a platform to develop worldwide business opportunities and relationships."

Expertise and support
"It gives me great pleasure to welcome NTT Com as the latest official partner of UEFA EURO 2004™," said Dr Sprengers. "Having worked closely with NTT Com for other UEFA events, UEFA is confident that the expertise and support they will provide will make the tournament in Portugal a huge success, and will help to bring the UEFA European Football Championship closer to football fans all over the world."

Important step
"UEFA EURO 2004™ today took an important step towards its success, by having NTT Com on board. The company’s high technology and history justify my warmest welcome," added Portuguese Football Federation president and EURO 2004, S.A. board chairman Dr Gilberto Madail.

Growing interest
Heralding the launch of uefa.com in Japanese, Alexandre Fourtoy, UEFA New Media's chief executive, said: "We are very proud to launch the Japanese version of uefa.com, as the interest for European football is continuously growing in Japan."

New challenges
"We are extremely happy with our partnership with NTT Com, a close, reliable and efficient partner of uefa.com from the very first day, and are looking forward to more exciting new challenges together. We believe we have the perfect partner to bring the best football to Japan," he added.

'Pleased and proud'
"We are very pleased and proud of having the opportunity to continue supporting one of the world's most popular sports, European football, with out technology and experience," commented Dr Tomita. "This partnership will be a great opportunity for NTT Com to demonstrate its future effort and its supporting technology to customers around the world. UEFA and NTT Com promise to co-operate toward the same goal of making this competition a success."