Tournament review

Communications
Futsal EURO
goes viral
Comprehensive coverage – with a little
help from some amazing Ricardinho goals
– allowed the competition to reach a wider
audience than ever before
UEFA Futsal EURO 2016 gained unprecedented
interest on UEFA's various communications
channels thanks in no small part to a piece of
magic from Ricardinho. The Portugal winger's
sensational goal against Serbia in front of a
packed Arena of Belgrade not only brought the
crowd to their feet – it also sparked a social
media frenzy. When the clip of the goal was
posted on the UEFA Futsal page on Facebook,
it reached more than 10 million people. In the
following 24 hours the Facebook page grew
18%, which helped contribute to a Facebook
reach of 26,557,901 people over the course
of the tournament.
It was a similar story on Twitter. Ricardinho's
strike against Serbia was watched more than
11,000 times from one @UEFAFutsal tweet
alone, which was topped by 58,445 views for his
second stunner in Portugal's quarter-final loss
to Spain. The @UEFAFutsal feed earned
3.5m impressions and 10,500 retweets over
the fortnight, growing more than 20% in terms
of followers. A Vine of a Ricardinho trick filmed
in Portugal training the day before the Serbia
game was looped more than 3m times.
UEFA.com had a team of four on-site reporters
at the Arena of Belgrade plus a photographer
and a dedicated cameraman and video producer
in the latter stages. Behind-the-scenes access
gave UEFA.com's coverage an exclusive and
comprehensive feel, and fans were kept fully up
to date with the action by social media channels
in seven languages as well as previews, reports,
analysis and live MatchCentre coverage. The
communications team had already heralded the
UEFA Futsal EURO with a comprehensive official
tournament programme, the print offering
complementing the digital output available from
the Arena of Belgrade.
All this helped to generate record audiences
for UEFA.com's UEFA Futsal EURO section.
Across the duration of the tournament there
were 1,059,711 visitors – more than doubling
the 2014 figure and well over three times the
2012 tally – and there were 169,877 hits for
the most visited single page of the finals.
A total of 3.8m page views were recorded,
some 68% up on two years ago, with more
than 1.5m coming from smartphone alone, as
more people than ever followed the tournament
on mobile. With highlights of every match
available the night of each game, video plays
more than quadrupled compared with 2014.
That was reflected on the YouTube channel
UEFA.tv, where video views exceeded 1.4m for
the mixture of highlights and behind-the-scenes
footage. Spain, Serbia, Russia, Portugal and Italy
provided the top five countries for UEFA.com
traffic, followed by Germany despite their nation
not fielding a side in Belgrade.
The UEFA Futsal EURO was followed in greater numbers on
social media than ever before
Record crowds in Belgrade were matched by
record numbers on UEFA.com
"The Portugal
winger's
sensational goal
against Serbia
sparked a social
media frenzy"
10m ↑20% 3.8m
the clip of Ricardinho's
goal against Serbia
reached over 10 million
people on Facebook
rise in @UEFAFutsal
Twitter followers during
the tournament
page views on UEFA.com,
up 68% on 2014
74 SERBIA 2016 TOURNAMENT REVIEW
75