A new partnership aims to make the FA Cup the biggest cup competition in the women’s game worldwide.

Kelly Simmons, the FA’s director of the women’s professional game, says Vitality’s three-year investment in the Women’s FA Cup shows ‘the power of women’s football’.

She says the new sponsor will bring ‘significant investment’ to the competition, while Vitality say they want to bring ‘more visibility’ to the women’s game.

Simmons said: "We want [the FA Cup] to be the biggest cup competition in the world for women's sport. Bringing a major brand in at this moment demonstrates the power of women's football and where the game is, and that brands and other partners want to get involved.

"It's been well documented we've had a lot of commercial interest in the WSL as well. It says strongly where women's football is at. It's on a big growth trajectory and every aspect of it is growing rapidly."

Clubs such as Championship side Lewes were calling for equal prize money in the FA Cup last season and Simmons has said it is under review how much of the investment will be added to the prize money pot.

She added: “This is obviously day one of a brand new partnership so we need to look at where we can take this investment and deliver the best value in terms of our aspirations around building and developing the Women's FA Cup.

"The prize fund will be part of that review so we'll have to do that piece of work."