What they actually have in common is a business arrangement. It exists between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Lauderdale and is one of many such arrangements between Premier League clubs and countries and\/or holiday destinations.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of arrangement that has seen the country of Rwanda become somewhat bizarrely and also controversially<\/a> synonymous with Arsenal. Or, to a lesser extent, Leeds United and Flamingo Land, AKA Yorkshire\u2019s ultimate theme park attraction.<\/p>\n \n Flamingo Land and Leeds United have been linked in recent years (MI News\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n In Wolves\u2019 case, the Lauderdale link began in 2024 when the team stayed in the area as part of a pre-season tour. The relationship was cemented when Visit Lauderdale, which is the tourism board for Greater Fort Lauderdale, was announced as the club\u2019s \u2018official destination partner\u2019 for the 2024-25 season, which has now been extended into a second year.<\/p>\n Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of Visit Lauderdale, said this season<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019re proud to continue this collaboration and look forward to welcoming even more Wolves supporters to experience the energy, culture, and beauty of our destination.\u201d<\/p>\n How many Wolves supporters have actually visited Lauderdale in the past 15 months is unclear, but that\u2019s not really the point. Relationships like these are all about visibility, advertising and money.<\/p>\n With the Premier League (as of 2024<\/a>) broadcast in 189 countries and accessible in almost a billion homes worldwide, having your tourist destination\u2019s name slapped on shirts or advertising boards during matches is almost priceless advertising (except for all the money it costs).<\/p>\n How do these partnerships come about? Well, it\u2019s the job of a club\u2019s commercial department to finalise deals, but most of the arrangements that do not have anything to do with the owners of said club (more of that shortly) are instigated through agencies. A tourist board such as Visit Maldives, for example, which recently entered into a multi-year partnership with Liverpool, would typically hire a sponsorship agency with a brief of the sort of club they are looking to partner with.<\/p>\n They may have quite a specific remit, limiting the budget and restricting which clubs they target, but maybe also geographical preference \u2014 ie, a club based in London.<\/p>\n Perhaps, as in Crystal Palace\u2019s case, the club have also just qualified for Europe for the first time in a while<\/a> and therefore become a more attractive global brand as a result. Lo and behold, in August, Palace linked up with SunExpress (a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines) as their official airline partner.<\/p>\n As part of the deal there will be some loose benefits to Palace fans, who can enter competitions to win flights to Turkey, match tickets or experiences (SunExpress also provides flights from nearby Gatwick airport) but mostly it\u2019s about Palace getting a decent wad of cash and the SunExpress name being plastered over Selhurst Park at home matches and across the club\u2019s social media channels.<\/p>\n Clubs also have associations with countries via their owners, such as Manchester City and the United Arab Emirates. UAE-based Etihad Airways sponsors the club and its name has been emblazoned on the team\u2019s shirt since 2009, and the stadium was renamed the Etihad two years later.<\/p>\n \n Etihad Airways is a familiar presence on the front of Manchester City shirts (Simon Stacpoole\/Offside\/Offside via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Newcastle United and the Public Investment Fund<\/a>, which takes the club-country partnership to a slightly different level, with prominent Newcastle fans<\/a> being paid to encourage people to head to Saudi Arabia to celebrate winning the Carabao Cup.<\/p>\n Newcastle have also had Saudi green on a number of their away kits in recent years, while the team have travelled to Riyadh for warm-weather camps and friendlies. Saudia Airlines is a club partner, Saudi events and hospitality firm Sela sponsors Newcastle\u2019s shirts<\/a> and the Saudi Arabia national team even played a friendly at St James\u2019 Park a couple of years ago<\/a>. We tell you what it definitely isn\u2019t, though, and that\u2019s sportswashing. No siree.<\/p>\n Links with airlines and Premier League clubs are now fairly common, such as Chelsea and Qatar Airways. Arsenal have been associated with Fly Emirates for almost 20 years, with the name first appearing on their shirts in 2006, the same year the Emirates Stadium opened.<\/p>\n Japan Airlines became Liverpool\u2019s first airline sponsor in 2024 after agreeing a multi-million pound deal and Liverpool visited Japan in pre-season\u00a0this year.<\/p>\n \u201cArriving in style and comfort, players and backroom staff will be flown to Asia by Japan Airlines, the club\u2019s official airline partner,\u201d the club said<\/a> before the tour. Exactly.<\/p>\n As well as Newcastle and Saudi Arabia, Arsenal\u2019s association with Rwanda is one of the most controversial partnerships that a Premier League club has entered into.<\/p>\n It began in 2018 when \u2018Visit Rwanda\u2019 began appearing on Arsenal shirt sleeves and continues to this day, with talks ongoing over extending the deal, which the club\u2019s accounts for 2023-24 reported as being worth \u00a310million ($13.4m)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rwanda is led by President Paul Kagame of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) party. He is an Arsenal fan. The UK government suspended aid to Rwanda in February over its support for the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n Visit Rwanda also has a partnership with Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, but less so with Bayern Munich, who reportedly scaled back<\/a> a similar deal in the summer after opposition from fans.<\/p>\n Even \u2014 with the greatest of respect \u2014 unfashionable Premier League clubs have overseas partners.<\/p>\n As well as Wolves, Brighton & Hove Albion have a Florida-based sponsor in Experience Kissimmee, the tourism board of Osceola County.<\/p>\n Russell Wood, Brighton\u2019s head of commercial, outlined to The Athletic\u00a0this year why the city of Kissimmee wanted the deal.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at the global audience, Kissimmee are ultimately trying to drive (hotel) room nights \u2014 visitors who will stay to experience everything,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Premier League and Brighton give them a platform to advertise to people in key markets, who will travel from places such as Brazil, the UK and other parts of the United States. We are a big marketing asset for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Fulham also have links with Florida, which stem from owner and Florida resident Shahid Khan, who also owns the NFL\u2019s Jacksonville Jaguars. They are also partnered with Mongolia. Just Mongolia, apparently, not the Outer bit.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not sure how aware the residents of Mongolia are of Josh King\u2019s ball-carrying prowess<\/a>, although this being the Premier League, they are probably very aware.<\/p>\n Fulham sent Mark Schwarzer<\/a> there as a gift when the partnership was announced, and after they had stopped asking, \u2018Sorry, who are you?\u2019, the Mongolian locals took penalties at the former goalkeeper. The Premier League, ladies and gentlemen.<\/p>\n While you\u2019ll see Hollywood plastered over Brentford\u2019s shirts, they\u2019re not attempting to steal Wrexham\u2019s thunder<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s merely the name of a betting company (Hollywood Bets) which is based in South Africa. Instead, Brentford\u2019s link-up is also with Florida, specifically Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s Detroit. Who could they be partnered with? Aston Villa, maybe? Everton? Nope, Burnley of course, and the impressive thing about their partnership is that it started when Burnley were still a Championship club.<\/p>\n How far, then, does English football\u2019s popularity stretch? Could Coventry City be sponsored by the Paris tourist board? When will Bournemouth announce a partnership with the planet Saturn?<\/p>\n Well, as a barometer of just how far those tentacles already stretch, if you watch a Barrow match in League Two this season (and why wouldn\u2019t you?), you\u2019ll see the name of Newfoundland and Labrador, a Canadian province, on the team\u2019s shirts.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-1871347812-scaled.jpg\")
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