Football Malaysia kicks off partnership deal with Ampersand Sports

The Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP) has appointed Ampersand Sports as the exclusive agency to market the sponsorship rights of the various M-League properties. These include the Super League, Premier League, Malaysia Cup and FA Cup competitions.The appointment is for an initial five-year period starting from the 2018 season, Ampersand Sports' spokesperson told A+M. Kevin Ramalingam, the CEO of FMLLP revealed that Ampersand has set a target to source a minimum of RM104 million in sponsorships for five years."[RM104 million] is the minimum. But obviously the lineup that Ampersand has put forward and propose in terms of potential sponsors, is between 10 to 12 sponsors being involved in the league.[...]We hope that this number can grow in the near future," he said.Tunku Ismail, who is also the FA of Malaysia (FAM) president, added that the sum raised from this initiative will all be channeled to developments programmes conducted by the state teams and clubs."Hasnan Hassan, CEO of Ampersand Sports, a new company in the Ampersand Group that will be marketing domestic football rights, added the company will be creating "new and exciting opportunities for brands to reach the huge domestic following that football enjoys." Hassan, who has vast experience in the marketing of various football properties such as the FIFA World Cup, honed his marketing skills in this field while working for Astro and ESPN before setting up his own marketing and media consultancy."Football fans are passionate. They will respond to brands that reach out to support their game. As the close partners of FMLLP we are confident that we can help bring more revenue to the domestic leagues and cups,” Hassan added.Meanwhile, Lee, who is also the founder of the Foetus Group advertising conglomerate, said, “It is an honour to work with Tunku Ismail, a visionary whose forward thinking will benefit Malaysian football greatly, as I have no doubt it would for other sports as well. We will do our best to help build domestic football and develop support for it among advertisers and sponsors.”“We are committed to bringing more value to Football Malaysia LLP and, in general, to boost the status of Malaysian football among advertisers. Brands should look at supporting local football, given that its audience is several times larger than that of the English Premier League,” he added.Ampersand Advisory was launched upon the partnership between Lee, Joseph and Trapper Media Group in April this year. The company is essentially backed by Lee and Trapper Media Group. Lee earlier said that this joint investment by "a leading creative agency and a leading media agency" is unique in the Malaysian marketplace.