Hyundai takes Euro 2012 Cup on a 5-week trip through host countries.

Americans have not been big fans of soccer. That is the old refrain, but any parent of a child under the age of about 20 knows that soccer is taking over youth sports in America. Parents who want their kids to be athletic and get some exercise are often exposed to the reality that many spring and fall sports for their kids either scare them (football) or bore them (Baseball). The rest of the planet has adopted football (soccer) as its sport and once the aging sports writers in America that keep baseball alive pass on we will start to see the coverage of sports here change as well. Hyundai is looking ahead and adding its sponsorship support to soccer in Europe. Visions of kids in cleats pouring out of long-wheelbase Santa Fes, while an attractive mom smiles, are dancing in the marketing department members heads.

World Cup Shirtless Women
We have all heard of the world cup since the American women won it and then took off their shirts and swung them around to celebrate. Too bad Danica Patrick hadn’t thought of that… But the world cup doesn’t happen every year, and in between the European Football Championship is played. In 2012 the match will be played in the Fußball Arena München. (If you know where that is you are presently pulling your hair out at this author’s incredible list of inaccuracies in the reporting.)

The Big Game
The big game is a few weeks away. The winning team will bring home the trophy-silver Henri Delaunay Cup, which is just like the Stanley Cup in hockey except not as hard to win, and the players don’t get to take it home to drink Jägermeister from it and then submerge infants in it before eating cereal out of it. (Now the soccer fans are typing hate email to me.) Hyundai’s support of this event is good marketing and good fun. The event has the atmosphere of a month’s long party interrupted by occasional sports with the looming threat of riots. If that isn’t another way to describe NASCAR I don’t what is.

Hyundai is proud to support European soccer and will be sure to keep an eye on the rising popularity of that favorite of American suburban parents, many of whom also drive Hyundais.