Shorts: Sports Direct, Legends Of Football, Norwich

Sports Direct launches ‘Equal View’ campaign to tackle visual misrepresentation of women’s football.

With an ambition to improve the representation of football fans and grassroots football, the retailer has worked with Getty Images to create a free, diverse bank of 75 images of fans, coaches and grassroots players from across the globe, captured throughout the competition in a bid to show an accurate depiction of football in 2023.

To ensure everyone has an equal view of football in 2023, Sports Direct is encouraging media, brands and rights holders to use the imagery as much as possible to address bias in the SEO (search engine optimisation) algorithms.

Beckie Stanion, Chief Marketing Officer at Sports Direct, said, “The increase in popularity of the women’s game is undeniable, and we are seeing more and more women and girls come into stores to buy football products. Yet it’s so disheartening to see certain stereotypes continue to plague the game.

An online search for football fans still brings up a disproportionate number of men or a very tokenistic view of women in football. We want to change that. You can’t be what you can’t see, and so Equal View aims to play a part in shaping a more inclusive, aspirational future for our customers. It’s an approach that isn’t exclusive to the World Cup either. Our long-standing Equal Play initiative has also sought to level the playing field between men’s and women’s football, plus our sponsorship of women’s teams such as Forest Green Rovers and Hibernian FC, are symptomatic of our desire to shine a light on the women’s game.”

Jacqueline, Bourke, Director Creative Insights EMEA at Getty Images, added, “We are seeing a huge increase in the visibility of Women’s sport, yet there is still a long way to go in getting the representation to a truly inclusive and equitable level. Our VisualGPS research continually highlights the consumer appetite for authentic representation of female sports, and this custom work with Sports Direct is an important step in widening that representation beyond the action on the field or pitch.”

Legends of Football announces Barclays as the headline sponsor for 2023.

The Legends of Football event is an annual charity fundraising night, supported by the Premier League, in aid of the UK’s largest music therapy charity.

Geoff Shreeves, Broadcaster and Legends of Football Chairman, said, ‘‘Barclays have a rich heritage in football with a long-standing association with the Premier League, the Barclays Women’s Super League and have done an amazing job in promoting grass roots initiatives. Allied with their backing of world class, music, arts and culture they are the perfect sponsor for this year’s Legends of Football event as we bring the worlds of football and music together to celebrate the legendary careers of Ian Wright and Emma Hayes.”

EFL Championship football club Norwich City has partnered with Spanish football club UD las Palmas and Gran Canaria.

As per the deal, the Gran Canaria tourism board has become a partner of the Canaries and an image of Gran Canaria will appear on the shirts of their men’s first team. In addition, the club will commit to sharing audiovisual productions and advertisements during Norwich City FC’s home fixtures.

Sam Jeffrey, Commercial Director at Norwich City, said, “The Gran Canaria logo is already on our jersey, and we’ve celebrated the first goal of the season with the logo. We’ll carry out other actions and campaigns to promote the island’s image, using our players to help spread the image in their home countries.”

Carlos Álamo, Minister for Tourism in the Gran Canaria government, added, “This is a great opportunity to make an impact in a strategic market for the Canary Islands and particularly Gran Canaria. We will enter millions of potential tourists’ homes through sports. This is a determined step to value British customers and to also maximise the potential of the 20 cities connected to Gran Canaria.”

EFL League Two football club Newport County has announced a two-year partnership with Soccer Supplement, a provider of nutritional products for athletes.

Scott Wickens, Head of Performance at Newport County, said, “We are excited to join forces with Soccer Supplement and embark on this journey together.

“They can help us to ensure our nutritional needs are properly met pre, during and post-match with top quality products.

“They’ve really helped to fuel the players throughout pre-season and the start of the campaign, and will continue to provide top-level support across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 season.”

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