The Honourable Gerry Byrne, Minister of Immigration, Population Growth and Skills, today announced the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has entered a two-year partnership with United Kingdom professional football club Barrow AFC of the English Football League. This partnership will see the province promoted internationally as a welcoming place for immigration, through the newly launched website HomeAwaits.ca.

An innovative collaboration through the world’s most popular sport, this partnership builds on Newfoundland and Labrador’s expanding presence in the United Kingdom, which has long been a premier source for newcomer recruitment, and throughout the world.

The province’s name and brand will be proudly worn as the prominent front logo on both Barrow AFC’s home and away jerseys, viewed by thousands of fans in stadiums as the team tours, and by millions globally on traditional television broadcasts, multi-platform streaming services and video games. The newly designed brand features a maple leaf and the new website to showcase everything that makes Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada the ideal spot to call home.

The cost of the two-year partnership is $171,000. In addition to jersey branding, this includes both digital and physical advertising within the United Kingdom. As part of being featured on Barrow AFC’s jersey, Newfoundland and Labrador will be showcased in the EA Sports’ FC 25 video game franchise, the top selling video game in 15 countries.

In addition, to help kick off the partnership, on Saturday, June 22, Barrow AFC Captain Niall Canavan, goalkeeper Paul Farman and strength and conditioning coach Chace Homer will be in the St. John’s area assisting in developmental training camps with local youth soccer organizations and the Association for New Canadians. These camps will mark the beginning what is hoped will become a continuing sport exchange between the club and province.

Barrow AFC will play 46 regular season games, plus cup games, across England each contracted season, wearing Newfoundland and Labrador’s branding and immigration website on their jersey.

For more information on Barrow AFC, the town of Barrow-in-Furness, and the extensive global multimedia reach to millions of football/soccer viewers this partnership offers Newfoundland and Labrador, and how this expands Newfoundland and Labrador newcomer recruitment in the U.K. and throughout the world, please see the backgrounder below.

Quotes
“This exciting new partnership between professional football club Barrow AFC and Newfoundland and Labrador allows the province to take part in the world’s game and be showcased worldwide. As Barrow AFC players wear Newfoundland and Labrador with pride on their jerseys, soon we will all be cheering along with pride of our own as the team takes the field. The truly global audience that professional English football has achieved will allow Newfoundland and Labrador to be promoted and featured to millions of viewers as a welcoming place to live and work on an incredible level.”
Honourable Gerry Byrne
Minister of Immigration, Population Growth and Skills

“It is great to see this initiative coming out of the Department of Immigration, Population Growth and Skills. I am sure that sports fans throughout our province will enjoy seeing Newfoundland and Labrador on the Barrow AFC jersey.”
Honourable Steve Crocker
Minister of Tourism, Culture, Arts and Recreation

“I was fortunate enough to visit this beautiful province recently and meet our new partners. There is a natural empathy between our two hard-working blue-collar communities who also enjoy life to the full. We felt so welcome wherever we went, everyone was so friendly and hospitable. What a great place to live. This partnership provides an exciting international platform for both parties, and I know we’ll enjoy working together.”
Tony Shearer
Co-Owner, Barrow AFC

“This is an exciting day for soccer in the province, and we look forward to further opportunities to work with Barrow AFC to enhance the soccer experience in the province.”
Charlie Reid
Executive Director, Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer Association

“We are delighted to support this important partnership, which offers a wonderful opportunity to showcase Newfoundland and Labrador through the game of soccer. By increasing our presence on the international stage through the universal language of sport, we hope that it will encourage more newcomers to choose our province as a place to call home.”
Megan Morris
Executive Director, Association for New Canadians

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BACKGROUNDER

Barrow AFC Football Club – A Proud History

• Founded in 1901, Barrow AFC is entering its fifth consecutive season in the EFL’s League Two.
• Barrow AFC has played out of the historic Holker Street (now SO Legal Stadium) since 1910.
• Barrow AFC’s newly signed manager is Stephen Clemence, who made nearly 250 appearances in the English Premier League with Tottenham Hotspurs and Birmingham City as a player.
• Barrow AFC averages over four million monthly views on X (formerly Twitter) platform.

NL Home and Away – Global Reach
Football (soccer) is the world’s game and a gateway to showcase Newfoundland and Labrador worldwide as a welcoming alternative for those who are looking for a new place to permanently settle and call home.

Through a sport watched around the world, more people will take notice of our beautiful landscape, welcoming people, and deep love of sport and consider it a place to call home.

This partnership will allow the Newfoundland and Labrador brand to be showcased in media throughout the United Kingdom (where hundreds of thousands of temporary residents are looking for a welcoming place to bring their skills and families to settle permanently) on international soccer broadcasts, and in the EA Sports FC video game franchise, providing the potential for millions of international eyes on this province.

Through United Kingdom and international broadcasts, United Kingdom-based physical advertisement and the EA Sports FC franchise game, this partnership with Barrow AFC allows for millions of potential eyes on the Newfoundland and Labrador brand.

The World is Watching – Viewership

• The English Football League (EFL) has signed new broadcast rights deals for the 2024-25 season that will see select regular season and all playoff and cup games broadcasted across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Central America, South America through media companies Pitch and Relevent Sports Group and streamed on ESPN and DAZN in North America.
• DAZN currently reaches 20 million annual global subscribers while ESPN’s soccer-focused YouTube channel has over four million subscribers.
• Domestically, in the United Kingdom, the EFL has signed a 5-year, £935 million deal that will increase the number of EFL games on Sky Sports to 1,000 per year, a record number of games for any club football agreement.
• In 2024, the opening week of EFL coverage on Sky Sports averaged over 630,000 views per game.
• All of Barrow AFC’s 2024-25 regular season and cup matches can be streamed worldwide via the EFL’s iFollow app subscription streaming services, which currently reaches over 2.5 million unique account views.
• Since its launch, the EA Sports soccer franchise video game series has sold over 325 million copies worldwide, highlighted by 26.4 million copies of 2018’s installment alone, making it the most commercially successful sports video game series of all time.
• The video game, FC 24 (formally Fifa 23), is newly available on mobile and accumulated over 11 million mobile downloads in its first week, selling 6.8 million console copies in the same timeframe.
• EA Sports’ soccer franchise is the most popular video game series in 15 different countries. At any given second, up to 100,000 individuals are playing online via game consoles, with players wearing team jerseys and accompanying promotional content such as Barrow AFC’s Newfoundland and Labrador logo.

Expanding Newfoundland and Labrador Newcomer Recruitment in U.K.

• The Barrow AFC partnership builds on Newfoundland and Labrador’s continuing presence in the United Kingdom, which has long been a premier source of newcomer recruitment efforts.
• Office of Immigration and Multiculturalism Staff attend newcomer recruitment fairs throughout the United Kingdom, including the City of Manchester, which is just a little more than an hour’s drive from Barrow, where the Barrow AFC team do most of their training.
• Immigration officials will be in the United Kingdom during the football season carrying out newcomer attraction activities. Employers interested in getting involved should contact attraction@gov.nl.ca.

Barrow-in-Furness – Connected to Newfoundland and Labrador

• Located in the county of Cumbria, England, Barrow-in-Furness is a port town that claims home to a world-class shipyard.
• Barrow-in-Furness’ shipyard has built a large number of Canada’s naval fleet dating back one hundred plus years, including the HMHS Newfoundland, a hospital ship in the Second World War, and Newfoundland and Labrador’s cargo ship, the Geraldine May.
• Barrow-in-Furness is home to one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world.
• Residents are known in U.K. for their keen sense of humour.