The second edition of LALIGA EXTRATIME Malaysia, LALIGA’s own networking event that has become in recent years a benchmark in the international sports industry and is held in strategic markets for LALIGA.
This edition featured two panels focused on two topics of utmost importance in the country: sports sponsorship and grassroots football.
After opening speeches by Datuk Zainal Abidin Hassan, representative of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), and the Spanish Ambassador to Malaysia, José Luis Pardo, two panels were held.
One, on sports sponsorship, with the participation of LALIGA, ASTRO, Ampersand Sports, MILO Malaysia, Grab and Selangor.
The second on youth football, with LALIGA Academy Malaysia, FAM, JDT FC Grassroots and Villarreal Academy Malaysia and special interventions by Sambil Park, organizer of LLYT and LLYL Malaysia, and RCD Espanyol, which explained their youth football and international academies strategies.
“LALIGA has gone from a turnover of 74 million to more than 160 million with its commercial business in just 7 years,” said Adrián Prol, Head of LALIGA in Malaysia regarding sports sponsorship.
“The importance for LALIGA of obtaining relevant sponsors at a global level, since they have considerably increased the brand’s notoriety and growth has been exponential”.
“In Malaysia, one of the main objectives is to achieve new sponsorships that become local partners of LALIGA in the long term and not only for punctual projects, with special interest in areas such as energy, watches, airlines, finance and insurance.”
He also highlighted the importance of collaboration with clubs and broadcasters and LALIGA’s flexibility in adapting the sponsorship model, which seeks to reach individual solutions tailored to each sponsor according to common interests.
LALIGA sees opportunities in Malaysia’s grassroots future
The fifth edition of the LALIGA Youth Tournament will take place this July.
The project partners, Sambil Park, revealed that there are already more than 70 teams confirmed from 9 different countries such as China, India and Pakistan.
“LALIGA is recognized worldwide for its support of grassroots football, and its clubs’ youth academies are consistently among the best in the world, as demonstrated by clubs such as Villarreal CF and RCD Espanyol, who have also participated here today,” said Adrian Prol.
“We have a strong commitment to promoting the development of football around the world and we are delighted to be able to host the LALIGA Youth Tournament again in Malaysia.”
Malaysia is precisely the country where this project was born, and now it has been replicated in more than 5 countries in the region.
In fact, the Asian country is home to one of the 8 official LALIGA academies worldwide: LALIGA Academy Malaysia, an exclusive academy where talents between 8 and 18 years old receive comprehensive training under the LALIGA Methodology and directed by a technical director of the entity, Diego Gutierrez.