The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) secured itself a sizeable bonanza when it signed a sponsorship deal with Yakult Malaysia which will see the latter appointed as the official probiotic drink of FAM for three years running starting from January 2018.
The deal was announced by FAM President HRH Major General Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim and Hiroshi Hamada, the Managing Director of Yakult Malaysia, at FAM headquarters.
The three-year sponsorship, which is valued at RM3.9 million and starts from January 2018, will last until December 2020. It will include product sponsorship of the Yakult Ace and Yakult Ace Light probiotic cultured milk drinks worth RM200,000 per year. This is the first time in its history FAM has appointed an official probiotic beverage as one of its sponsors.
The FAM president reiterated that the sponsorship is very much welcomed and will benefit not only FAM but also help maintain the health of the national football team players and, hopefully, see an improvement in their overall performance.
âWe hope this sponsorship will be the start of a long-term relationship which will benefit FAM and Yakult Malaysia with the hope of giving football a big lift among the Malaysian fans and also encourage a healthy lifestyle,â said the FAM president.
Yakult Malaysia Managing Director, Hiroshi Hamada said: âWe are proud to be named as FAMâs official probiotic beverage of choice. Starting from January 2018, for every bottle of Yakult purchased, we will contribute one sen to FAM. We hope everyone will join us to contribute and support our national football teams as they strive to make their mark in the global arena, perhaps even to qualify for The World Cup Finals one day in the future.
âThis collaboration may come as a surprise to some because the benefits of probiotics for athletesâ health is not widely known. Yakult has been shown, through scientific research, to help reduce the risk of athletes catching a cold while in intense training. It works by increasing the bodyâs immunity which is reduced due to the physical stress of tough training. By reducing the risk of infection to any sickness, our footballers will, hopefully, be able to maintain their health and fitness at optimal level and perform their best in all matches,â he added.
