The Football Association of Ireland has signed a four year deal with Spar to become the official convenience store partner of Irish soccer.
Spar will also lend its title to the national primary schools competition now to be known as the Spar National Primary 5’s.
Spar’s previous main involvement with sport, has been in athletics where the brand has been a strong supporter of grassroots running.
The Spar Run with Ray 5K series that has built over the past five years to a communal run in five locations that saw 20,000 participate last year.
The parent international brand has also been a major investor in European Athletics at the elite level.
Spar was in the news last week when parent company BWG took a controlling stake in ADM Londis. This was on top of an investment announcement of €100 million made last year which is expected to create 1,200 jobs over the near to medium future.
The company will no doubt look to mirror the relationship which rival Musgraves has with the GAA through the sponsorship of the All Ireland Football and Hurling Championships through Supervalu and Centra.
Those brands have exclusive ticketing arrangements for major games through ticket retailer tickets.ie and it could be that the FAI will look to build a similar partnership around international matches and SSE Airtricity League games.
