The Women’s Professional Leagues Limited has secured a lucrative deal for Subway to sponsor the League Cup, which Telegraph Sport understands will be worth more than £1 million from next season.

The competition has been without a sponsor since Continental Tyres’ deal came to an end at the end of the 2023-24 campaign.

Telegraph Sport can reveal fast-food restaurant chain Subway will take over the sponsorship rights from the knockout stage of this season, which begins in January.

The deal for this season is worth double the previous contract with Continental Tyres, which covered the entirety of the 2023-24 campaign.

It is believed the multi-year agreement will be worth more than £1 million from the start of the 2025-26 season and Subway is also understood to have a committed marketing spend.

It is a landmark deal for the WPLL, who took over the running of the Women’s Super League and Championship in the summer.

It comes after it secured a new five-year broadcast deal with the BBC and Sky Sports from the 2025-26 season, which is believed to be worth in the region £65 million for the duration of the contract.

The competition will be renamed the Subway Women’s League Cup, with the draw for the quarter-final and semi-finals taking place on the WSL’s YouTube channel at 12.30pm.

This is not Subway’s first involvement in football. The restaurant chain is the current sponsor of the Australian men’s national team, who have been rebranded as the “Subway Socceroos”.

The company previously sponsored Liverpool and has also ventured into other sports, including NFL.

The teams competing in the Champions League – holders Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City – were exempt from the group stage but will enter the competition at the quarter-finals. The remaining five teams making up the draw are Manchester United, Tottenham, Brighton, Durham and West Ham, who all progressed from their respective groups.