30/9/2002

The League of Wales has landed a sponsorship deal with Japanese car giants Mitsubishi.

The agreement is worth £26,000 this season and will be reviewed next summer with a view to an increase. Mitsubishi's move ends seven barren years for the Football Association of Wales' top-flight section, which had failed to attract a sponsor since office equipment specialists Konica pulled out their financial support in 1995.

There were hopes Honda would step in some months back, but the deal collapsed when the company's name was leaked before a formal agreement was ratified.

FAW president Des Shanklin welcomed the news. He said: "This has been long overdue in arriving. It's a mystery to me why other companies hadn't stepped forward sooner. The deal is adequate. Maybe we could have hoped for one more lucrative, but it's a start, something we can build on."

Since 1993 League of Wales teams have had a poor record in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and UEFA Intertoto Cup competitions - a factor which, Shanklin believes, has affected potential sponsorships.

He said: "I don't think the record in European competition helped. But our Welsh international team under Mark Hughes is certainly on the up turn. We have Italy at the Millennium Stadium on 16 October. A win or a draw there will raise the profile of Welsh football even more - that can only be good for everyone in the Principality."

Source:	UEFA
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