The Yukon Soccer Association is pleased to announce it has formed a new partnership with Subway Restaurants.

The agreement is worth approximately $5,000 and will help the organization put on two outdoor tournaments in the coming weeks.

The Subway Soccer 2009 Yukon Outdoor Championships begins this weekend with a cross-court tournament for the U-9, U-10 and U-11 divisions. The following championship is scheduled for June 26-28.

Subway's sponsorship as a result of McDonald's informing the Yukon Soccer Association that it was no longer going to be one of its key sponsors.

Tony Gaw, a board member on the Yukon Soccer Association, said the partnership with Subway means a great deal to the organization.

"Subway was very generous in their donation to sponsor the full-field and cross-field championships and it came at a time when we needed it because McDonalds had left," he said. "We hope to keep the sponsorship with Subway for many years to come, similar to the 21 years we got from McDonalds. If we're close to that, we would be pretty happy."

This weekend's tournament has 23 squads, including eight in the U-9 class, seven in the U-10 division, and eight in the U-11 category.

All of the teams are from Whitehorse, with the exception of one U-10 team from Dawson City.

Around 500 players will take part in the Yukon soccer championships.

Johnny Nunan, president of the Yukon Soccer Association, said these types of partnerships are huge.

"The organization is essentially run by volunteers anyhow and then to have some sort of sponsorship like Subway come aboard, I tell you really makes things easier," he said. "We are just thrilled to have Subway aboard."

Nunan was appreciative to the support McDonalds gave for more than two decades.

"We had over 21 years of sponsorship from McDonalds," he said. "In this day of age I think that is unbelievably incredible."