Swedish Burger Chain Defies McDonald’s and UEFA

The level of commercialization in football took another step towards total today, as UEFA are taking Euro 2009 Under-21 Championship matches away from the Swedish city of Borås.

Not because the stadium isn’t built, not because of infrastructure or safety concerns. Not for anything football related. But to keep McDonald’s happy. That’s right, the location of international tournaments is now decided by how happy Ronald McDonald is.

The controversy revolves around Swedish fast food restaurant MAX, who’ve been arguing with UEFA about whether they should close their doors for the U-21 Euros to make way for official sponsor McDonald’s.

MAX apparently offered a last minute compromise: to close their Borås Arena joint three hours before kick off and re-open an hour after the end of matches. But McDonalds/UEFA say that’s not good enough, and have yanked Borås as a venue.

In a sense, MAX has cost Borås the pleasure of hosting some international footy. But in the Swedish burger chain’s defence, this is also the will of the people. MAX conducted a survey though newspaper GT, with 93 percent of 22,000 readers voting in favour of defying UEFA.

Which means one of two things. Either MAX serves makes seriously good burgers (which somehow I doubt) or people are sick of football tournaments being dominated by commercials sponsors. I really hope it’s the latter.