The French Football Federation (FFF) has inked a sponsorship deal with the French multinational chemicals group, Arkema.
As part of the deal, the brand will serve as the naming-rights sponsor of France’s top-flight women’s football league i.e. Division 1 Féminine and has also agreed on a deal to sponsor the French women’s national team until 2025.
The new agreement was revealed with the FFF prior to the forthcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to August 20. Furthermore, Arkema’s partnership with the women’s national team will also include the Paris 2024 Olympic and the UEFA Euro 2025 in Switzerland.
Arkema has sponsored Division 1 Féminine since 2019, and its current naming rights arrangement extends through 2025. According to L’Équipe, the league is officially called as D1 Arkema due to a sponsorship arrangement worth €1.2m ($1.3m) per season.
Philippe Diallo, President of the FFF, commented, “The FFF is happy to welcome this major player in the industry as a partner of our French women’s team. This new partnership is perfectly in line with the Federation’s ambition to develop the practice to the highest level. A pioneering partner of women’s D1, Arkema also wanted to participate in the new project and new challenges of the French team led by Hervé Renard and his staff. »
Thierry Le Hénaff, Chairman and CEO of Arkema, said, “We find ourselves with the French women’s team around strong common values of commitment, performance, sharing and inclusion. It is therefore a great pride for us to be alongside Les Bleues who have high ambitions for the competitions to come: the 2023 World Cup this summer, the Paris 2024 Olympics and Euro 2025.
The rights to women’s national team football in France were recently acquired by public-service broadcaster, France Télévisions and commercial broadcaster M6, while pay-television station Canal Plus renewed its arrangement with D1 Arkema.
The national team rights include the forthcoming UEFA Women’s Nations League, Euro 2025 and 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifying matches, in addition to all friendly matches played during this time period.