In what is possible a first in football, NISA club Chattanooga FC have announced Bundesliga club Wolfsburg as their new main sponsor.
The Wolfsburg logo will appear on the front of the Chattanooga away and goalkeeper kits starting with the 2021 season, as part of a collaboration that will see the German club support youth and coaching development at the US club. Women's football will also return to Chattanooga from 2022.
Chattanooga is an official partner city of Wolfsburg and is home to a Volkswagen assembly plant with roughly 4,000 employees.
“We have a longstanding partnership with Chattanooga FC, which we are now taking to the next level,” said VfL Managing Director Michael Meeske. “With this unique activation at an important Volkswagen location, we want to make our contribution to sustainably supporting the local community there. Our logo on the chest of the away jerseys symbolizes that we will increasingly share our values ••and attitude with the club in the future and not only support it through the transfer of know-how in promoting youth, but also take a holistic approach together and in the process will bring women's football back to Chattanooga.
VfL sporting director Marcel Schäfer, who ended his active career in the USA in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rowdies: “In my eyes, Chattanooga FC is absolutely unique. The club is one hundred percent owned by fans, which gives it a very special charisma.”
"Today's announcement marks the culmination of a decade of labor-intensive building this partnership with our friends in Wolfsburg," said Tim Kelly, board chairman of Chattanooga FC.
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