Wales Women share in partnership deal with Boots – the biggest commercial agreement in women’s sport in Wales

by Julie Kissick

WALES Women’s national team is to share in a three year multi-million pound sponsorship deal with Boots.

It is the biggest commercial agreement in women’s sport in Wales. The partnership aims to inspire participation from young girls and women across Wales, by telling the stories of some of the inspirational role models represented in women’s football.

The high street giant will sponsor the four home nations and Republic of Ireland teams.  The money will be split in different amounts between the five football associations.

The deal will run during the upcoming 2019 Women’s World Cup in France and the 2021 Women’s European Championships in England.

This agreement follows hot on the heals of Barclays, which announced it was becoming the Women’s Super League’s first title sponsor.The three-year deal is understood to be worth in excess of £10m.

Commentators have pointed out that this is the first stand-alone headline sponsor for the home nations and the Republic of Ireland. Previous deals have also included the men’s teams.

FA Wales Chief Executive Jonathan Ford: “Boots want to inspire women to be their best self and we at the FAW want to inspire women to be their best self in football and achieve their potential on and off the field, whether that’s as an elite player, someone who plays for fun, a coach, referee or even wider in the game.

“We want to partner with brands who can support us in raising awareness around the women’s game in Wales, to challenge perceptions and come on the journey with us to reach our ambitious target of 20k girls playing in Wales by 2024.

“It’s the biggest sponsorship deal to date for women’s sport in Wales – we hope that a successful partnership with Boots will highlight the benefits to brands considering sponsoring women’s sport in Wales, and we can move forward to secure further investment into the women’s game. Boots are paving the way for commercial brands to get behind Women’s Sport in Wales.”

Helen Normoyle, Marketing Director at Boots UK said: “It’s so exciting to see how women’s football has evolved and really taken off over the last few years, especially as a retailer who is proud to champion women’s right to live well, feel better and look great.

“Boots has always had a strong heritage of supporting women and in fact we even founded our very own women’s sports team as early as 1894. 43% of women believe there aren’t many female sporting role models, but we know that this simply isn’t true.

“Via our partnership we are excited to give these inspirational women to tell their stories to help encourage other women to experience the transformative confidence sport can bring”.