Valvoline Backs Women's World Cup With Rose Lavelle Deal

Valvoline Backs Women's World Cup Brazil 2027 as an official supporter, putting one of America's oldest motor-oil brands behind the biggest tournament in women's soccer. The company announced the deal on October 20, 2026, and named United States midfielder Rose Lavelle as its brand ambassador for the tournament, which runs June 24 to July 25, 2027, and will be the first time the competition has been staged in South America.

The Valvoline Backs Women's World Cup deal sits in the third tier of FIFA's commercial program for the tournament. According to Inside World Football, the Official Supporter level also includes Airbnb, DoorDash, Globant and Salesforce, sitting below second-tier sponsors such as Michelob Ultra, Lay's, Dove and Mengniu, and below the top-tier partners led by Aramco, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai, Lenovo, Qatar Airways and Visa. The deal follows the brand's sponsorship of this summer's men's World Cup, where it held the same status across the United States, Canada and Mexico, a carryover route that has become common as FIFA builds a standalone commercial program for the women's game.

What Lavelle brings to the deal

The midfielder gives the partnership a face American fans know well. The Cincinnati-area star has been one of the defining players of her generation, and the company said she will front fan promotions and experiences through the tournament. "The FIFA Women's World Cup Brazil 2027 will showcase extraordinary talent, inspire future generations, and bring people together across cultures and borders," said Jamal Muashsher, president and CEO of Valvoline Global, in the company's press release. He added that the brand believes progress is powered by originals: athletes, innovators and trailblazers who refuse to settle and create their own path.

The Cincinnati connection runs deeper than a convenient hometown story. Lavelle grew up in Greater Cincinnati, and the company recently announced it will establish its new global headquarters in the same city, giving both sides a shared home base to build the partnership around. "We're honored to celebrate and spotlight the originality, determination and performance that have fueled the remarkable growth of women's soccer around the world," Muashsher said, framing the deal as a bet on the sport's trajectory rather than just its current audience.

How fans will actually watch it

For viewers, the more important news may be how the tournament reaches them. In the United States and Canada, every match will stream exclusively on Netflix, which has called the competition its most ambitious sports production to date, with IMG producing all sixty-four matches. That is a sharp contrast with past cycles, when women's soccer was often buried on secondary channels: this time the world's biggest streamer is the front door. Netflix is deepening its soccer footprint elsewhere too, having recently locked up the 2030 men's World Cup rights for Spain, which suggests the Valvoline signing is part of a wider bet that the women's game can anchor premium inventory.

Thirty-two teams from six continents will contest the Brazil tournament, and FIFA has been explicit that the women's program is being built to stand on its own rather than ride the men's coattails. Whether that translates into top-tier money is the open question. That third rung is the entry level of the sponsorship ladder, and the brands at the top of the pyramid are paying far more for far more visibility, so one signing does not close the commercial gap on its own. What it does is add another brand with real activation budgets to a program that barely existed a decade ago.

It is a big season for the business of sports and for athletes rewriting expectations. From India's para stars chasing a hundred medals in Japan to the boardrooms signing the next wave of tournament deals, the momentum is unmistakable. The Valvoline Backs Women's World Cup announcement will be measured by what comes next: the fan experiences the company has promised for the Americas and Europe, and whether more brands follow it up the ladder before the tournament kicks off. For a company that built its name on motor oil, hitching its future to one of the world’s fastest-growing soccer audiences is a statement of intent.