The FFA Cup competition is in search of a new naming rights sponsor after the FFA announced that Westfield will no longer sponsor the annual national knockout cup competition.
Westfield will instead concentrate on supporting Women’s football through its continued sponsorship of the W-League.
FFA CEO David Gallop praised the involvement of Westfield Group in sponsoring the FFA Cup.
“As indicated recently, Westfield has chosen to increase their support of Women’s Football in Australia and as a result has chosen to step down as the naming rights partner of the FFA Cup,” he said.
“Westfield took a leap of faith when they chose to partner the fledgling FFA Cup competition in 2014 and their contributions have been a big reason why the FFA Cup has become so successful in such a short time.
“We thank Westfield and the Centre Group for their valuable support and we look forward to continue to work with them to promote and develop Women’s Football in Australia.”
Westfield has held the chief naming rights sponsor of the FFA Cup since its inception in 2014. The competition has helped give traditional NPL clubs the opportunity to participate in a National competition. Melbourne NPL clubs such as Bentleigh Greens and South Melbourne have made it as far as the semi-finals of the competition and received valuable media exposure.
It is too early to know what the withdrawal of Westfield as a chief sponsor will mean for the competition. Whilst some, like Gallop could hail Westfield’s support as invaluable for the fledgling competition, others argue that opening up the bidding could lead to a more lucrative sponsorship deal.
The announcement follows the decision of the Lowy family to sell its stake in the international division of the Westfield business empire to a European company Unibail-Rodamco for $32.8 billion, after Frank Lowy decided it was time to turn his back on what he referred to as the useless formalities of running a publicly listed company.