Garmin joins Saints as official men’s sleeve sponsor for 2025/26 Season

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Image Credit: Vitalii Vitleo / Shutterstock.com

Southampton has announced it’s continuing its partnership with leading fitness technology brand Garmin, who will join as the Official Sleeve Sponsor for the men’s first team.

This latest announcement builds on the successful partnership between the two organisations last season, which saw Garmin feature as the back-of-shirt sponsor during the EFL Cup and included support for the launch of Garmin’s flagship store in Southampton’s Westquay Shopping Centre.

The store, Garmin’s only retail location in the UK, showcases the brand’s full range of consumer electronics, from smartwatches and cycling computers to golf devices and products for automotive and marine use.

As part of the renewed partnership, Garmin’s logo will appear on the sleeve of the Men’s First Team kit, and fans will also have the opportunity to add the logo to their 2025/26 shirts in-store, while stocks last.

Coaches from both our Men’s and Women’s teams will be using Garmin products during training, including the brand’s premium smartwatch, the fēnix 8.

Garmin’s technology will also play a key role in supporting our Sports Science department.

Jon Oliver, Managing Director for Garmin UK & Ireland, said the partnership with Southampton FC supports Garmin’s mission to promote health, fitness, and community in a city they proudly call home.

“As a company with deep roots in Southampton, we’re proud to continue our relationship with Southampton Football Club and become the Official Men’s Sleeve Sponsor for the 2025/26 season,” he said in a press release.

“For us, this is about more than sport, it’s about celebrating shared values around health, fitness, and community. With our European Headquarters based here, we’re passionate about inspiring people locally to lead active lifestyles and connect through movement.

“Supporting Saints allows us to strengthen that mission in the heart of a city we’re proud to call home.”

Greg Bakerv, Southampton Chief Revenue Officer, said the expanded partnership with Garmin as Official Sleeve Sponsor reflects shared values of innovation and performance, and will deliver greater benefits across the club.

“We’re pleased to be expanding our campaign with Garmin and welcoming them as our Official Sleeve Sponsor for the Men’s First Team,” he said in a press release.

“Garmin’s innovation and performance-driven approach aligns perfectly with our values at Southampton, and this next chapter in our relationship will bring even more benefits to our players, staff, and fans.

“From enhancing our training capabilities with cutting-edge technology to deepening engagement across the club, this collaboration continues to go from strength to strength.”

Together, Southampton FC and Garmin are building on shared values to drive innovation on the pitch, support player performance, and strengthen community connections for seasons to come.

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Football Australia Expands Mental Skills Program for Match Officials Amid Sustained Focus on Referee Retention

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Image Credit: Football NSW

Football Australia has confirmed a second national webinar for match officials, led by sports psychologist Dr Liam Slack, extending a referee development series introduced after strong engagement with an initial session on managing match-day pressure.

The upcoming session, themed “parking with purpose,” will focus on decision-making strategies designed to help referees process on-field calls and reset attention quickly across a match that can present hundreds of individual decisions. Dr Slack, who also consults with The Football Association and the AFC Referee Academy and previously spent over a decade as a performance psychologist with the Professional Game Match Officials Limited in England, brings substantial elite-level experience to a program open to officials at every level, from grassroots to professional.

The theme builds on work Dr Slack has already delivered within Australian officiating. He recently led a session with Football Australia’s National Referee Academy on the same concept, framing the ability to consciously park a decision and refocus on the next phase of play as a trainable skill rather than an innate trait, one that separates officials who reset quickly under pressure from those who don’t. He has also addressed more than 100 Football Australia elite match officials and staff on developing a stronger match-day mentality, an indication of how embedded this psychological framework has become across the officiating pathway rather than remaining a one-off intervention.

The expansion of the webinar series reflects a broader shift in how football administrators are approaching referee attrition. Rather than treating retention purely as a recruitment or pay problem, the program signals an institutional acknowledgment that the psychological demands of officiating, particularly the compounding pressure of split-second decisions under public scrutiny, are a material factor in whether officials remain in the game.

It rests alongside other measures adopted across Australian football in recent years, including visible identification programs for junior referees and structural reviews of referee departments at state federation level, all aimed at the same underlying issue: a shrinking pool of match officials relative to demand.

Football Australia has not detailed metrics for assessing the program’s impact on referee numbers, though the recurring engagement of an internationally credentialed specialist across multiple tiers of the officiating pathway suggests sustained institutional investment in the approach.

Arsenal FC announce Saint Lucia as new destination partner

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Image credit: Saint Lucia Tourism Authority

Starting in the 2026/27 season, the deal will see Saint Lucia become Arsenal‘s Official Destination Partner.

 

Global reach of a football giant

As one of the most popular clubs in the world, Arsenal’s influence expands far beyond the boundaries of North London.

And with its latest partnership, alongside the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority (SLTA), the reigning Premier League champions will help to promote the Caribbean island to the UK market.

Furthermore, the agreement will see additional benefits for both parties, including the development of an Academy Hub in Saint Lucia, brand visibility at the Emirates Stadium for both Premier League and Women’s Super League games, and more.

“We are entering an exciting term as Arsenal’s Official Destination Partner, aligning with a club that has a loyal, global supporter base,” said Saint Lucia’s Minister for Tourism, Commerce, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Heritage, Dr. Ernest Hilaire via media release.

A partnership extending from one side of the Atlantic to the other, uniting communities through football.

 

Sport and culture go hand-in-hand

This isn’t the first time, however, that Saint Lucia Tourism Authority has ventured into the commercial world of global sport.

In the past, for example, the organisation built firm relationships with several other iconic outfits including the New York Yankees (baseball), Toronto Raptors (basketball), Toronto Maple Leafs (ice hockey) and Brooklyn Nets (basketball).

But with an iconic club like Arsenal the latest addition to the lost, it further proves that sport, culture and commerce are by no means seperate entities.

In fact, in a deal such as this, all three can grow and thrive.

Arsenal are one of several clubs to establish ties with tourism boards and destination groups across the world. Notable partnerships include:

  • Manchester City and Visit Abu Dhabi
  • Fulham FC and Visit Mongolia
  • Manchester United and Visit Malta

Exposure for international tourism boards at Premier League grounds holds immense economic potential, thus a key aim in the alliance between Saint Lucia and Arsenal is to drive the island’s economy through tourism.

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