Welsh fifth division team celebrates
Village club gets a strange sponsorship deal
September 13, 2023, 2:03 p.m
Football is played very unsuccessfully in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. But the local club still lands an extraordinary sponsorship deal.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is not the result of a cat walking across the keyboard. No, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the village with the longest name in the world. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is located in Wales and is home to an extremely unsuccessful football club – which can now enjoy international attention: The club, which is called CPD Llanfairpwll FC for short, will be sponsored by “La Liga” in the future. The league in which Robert Lewandowski and Jude Bellingham, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid cavort.
In terms of sport, this competition of global superstars is further removed from the fifth-tier North Wales Coast West League Division One than Spain and North Wales, but somehow they came together for a “unique partnership to spread The Power of Our Fútbol”, like “La Liga” denotes the arrangement. The league logo will adorn Llanfairpwll FC’s jerseys in the future. The record location was also able to look forward to a new town sign: “Welcome to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch” it says. The five “ll” in the name have been adapted to the new “La Liga” logo.
The commitment of the billion-dollar “La Liga” is already worthwhile in the first days since the deal: “We are already watching a lot more Spanish football this season,” Marquis Holland, top scorer for CPD Llanfairpwll FC, is quoted as saying in a statement. “We look forward to learning from players like Lewandowski, Griezmann and Bellingham.” It might be worth taking a closer look for the players: In the fifth-tier North Wales Coast West League Division One, CPD Llanfairpwll FC lost two of the first three games of the season.
Welsh football is once again becoming the scene of a strange alliance: in 2020, Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds joined Wrexham FC, the third oldest football club in the world. In 2022 the club achieved promotion and Wrexham FC’s popularity exploded – also due to the documentary series that the new owners produced. The marketing coup by Reynolds and his partner Rob McElhenney may have fired the imagination of “La Liga”. With the deal, La Liga is expanding its efforts to attract British audiences to Spain’s clubs and competitions.
By the way, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a big marketing gimmick in itself: the long form of the place name is said to have been created in the 19th century to increase tourism and attention for the small town in north Wales.