NYON, Switzerland (AP) — The Women’s Champions League in European soccer will go mostly behind a paywall for the next five seasons on Disney+ in a deal announced by UEFA’s joint venture with top clubs on Friday.
The final on Saturday between defending champion Barcelona and Arsenal in Lisbon completes a four-year broadcast deal where fans could watch games for free on streaming service DAZN and YouTube.
The Women’s Champions League is expanding next season to 18 teams from 16, in a single league standings instead of groups before the knockout stage. A second tier Women’s Europa Cup also will launch.
“The five-year deal will ensure that each of the 75 matches in the newly expanded (Champions League) is available to Disney+ customers in Europe at no additional cost,” said UC3, the commercial partnership between UEFA and the European Club Association.
Broadcasts will be produced by Disney-owned ESPN with “multilingual commentary and comprehensive pre- and post-match programming,” the UC3 statement said.
The broadcast strategy through 2030 will allow one game per match week to be shown on some free-to-air networks and members of the European Broadcasting Union.
Selected games will be shown in countries including France, Germany and Spain, UC3 said.
The value of the Disney+ and EBU deals were not revealed.
UEFA has projected total “competition revenues” of 33.8 million euros ($38.4 million) next season.
A 25 million euros ($28.4 million) subsidy also comes from men’s competitions, including the Champions League, and UEFA is contributing more than 11 million euros ($12.5 million).
That should provide a total prize money fund, once running costs are deducted, of 18.2 million euros ($20.6 million) to share among the 18 Women’s Champions League teams in each of the next two seasons, UEFA has said.
Teams in the Women's Europa Cup are set to share a 5.6 million euros ($6.4 million) total prize money fund.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, center, attends during the Europa League final soccer match between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United at the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)
Barcelona's Alexia Putellas runs during a training session, on the eve of the women's Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona, at the Jose Alvalade Stadium, in Lisbon, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
DENVER (AP) — A Frontier Airlines plane hit and killed a pedestrian on the runway of the Denver International Airport during takeoff, airport authorities said, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate.
The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday," the airport's official X account wrote.
A spokesperson for the airport said the pedestrian, who jumped a perimeter fence, has died. They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.
“We're stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”
The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”
The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now" before the pilot tells the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”
Frontier Airlines said in a statement flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the crash with the pedestrian.
“The Airbus A321 was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members,” the airline said. “We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities.”
Passengers were then evacuated via slides and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. The airport spokesperson said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to local hospitals.
Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and that runway 17L, where the incident took place, will remain closed while an investigation is conducted. It is expected to open later today.
The pedestrian death came a day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed while on the job at the Orlando International Airport. In a statement, the airline said the employee was killed Thursday night without providing details of the incident nor the name of the employee.
“We are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time,” the airline said. "We are working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway to determine what occurred.”
FILE - A Frontier Airlines jetliner taxis down a runway for take off from Denver International airport on Nov. 25, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
