Small English soccer team has huge year, thanks in part to Newfoundland and Labrador

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — An unusual advertising deal paid off for Newfoundland and Labrador as a small northern England soccer club wearing the province's name on their jerseys faced off Tuesday against one of the best-known teams on the planet.

The province is sponsoring the Barrow AFC soccer team, a fourth-tier outfit from Barrow-in-Furness whose banner year earned them a match against top-tier titans Chelsea FC in the race for the English Football League cup.

The Barrow team hit the pitch Tuesday in jerseys emblazoned with Newfoundland and Labrador's name and website, visible to more than 38,000 fans in Chelsea's home stadium in North London, and countless others who tuned in to watch streams and broadcasts from major networks.

"Chelsea are one of the biggest Premier League clubs in England, which basically means they're one of the biggest football clubs in the entire globe," said Ethan Thatcher, Barrow AFC's media manager. "For Barrow to play them, it was a very surreal experience."

Newfoundland and Labrador is home to about 530,000 people, and its $171,000 sponsorship of the Barrow club is aimed at attracting more skilled workers to the province, such as doctors, nurses and social workers, said Immigration Minister Sarah Stoodley.

England tightened its immigration laws last year, making it harder for newcomers to obtain work visas and to bring their family to the U.K., she noted. Newfoundland and Labrador is hoping to catch the attention of those workers who may now be looking for a new place to live.

Beneath the province's name on Barrow AFC's yellow-and-black jerseys is the province's HomeAwaits.ca site, which offers information about moving to Newfoundland and Labrador alongside photos of its rugged coastlines and capital city.

The site gets about 50,000 visitors every day, Stoodley said. That figure jumped by about 1,200 after the Barrow AFC players hit the pitch on Tuesday. More than half of those new visitors got there by typing the address directly into their browser.

British media have also written about the jerseys, Stoodley added.

"If we had spent that money on Facebook ads, we wouldn't have gotten the buzz and the the two BBC articles, which I really believe are also helping to achieve the goal of raising Newfoundland and Labrador's profile," she said in an interview from England.

The soccer team has also seen returns on the sponsorship. Fans love the jerseys. They sell out "straight away" after every new batch arrives, Thatcher said.

Barrow AFC lost Tuesday's match against Chelsea with a score of 5-0, but Thatcher says they've still got a league championship ahead of them, which they plan to win — all while wearing their Newfoundland and Labrador shirts.

"Our fans have really picked up on the sponsorship," he said. "We're selling merchandise which has the Maple Leaf or has Newfoundland and Labrador's name on it. It's … such an unusual but a great sponsorship."

The team's posts on the X platform unveiling the jerseys got nearly one million views in just the first week they were displayed, he added.

"That doesn't happen for a team like Barrow," he said. "It shows not just the eyes of Barrow-in-Furness, but certainly the world's eyes were on our kit, which had a big thing to do with, obviously, the sponsors Newfoundland and Labrador."

He said he's not sure if the campaign has successfully lured any soccer fans across the Atlantic, but he visited Newfoundland and Labrador with three other Barrow AFC members for the uniform launch, and he hopes to return.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press