Press Releases ● Feb 02, 2016
FAS And Garena In Sponsorship Deal Worth Up To S$4 Million For Young Lions
Sponsorship deal is the biggest for a club in Singapore’s football history
SINGAPORE (02 February 2016) – Garena, Southeast Asia’s largest Internet and mobile platform company, and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) today announced a two-year sponsorship deal worth up to S$4 million for the Young Lions. Under the deal, Garena will provide S$2 million in cash sponsorship to the Young Lions and a programme budget of up to S$2 million for the promotion and development of the team. The team will be known as the Garena Young Lions and will wear shirts bearing the Shopee brand. Shopee is Garena’s social-first, mobile-centric, C2C marketplace.
“Resources have always been a key constraint faced by the FAS. This record deal represents a great vote of confidence for our programmes, and for that we would like to thank Garena. The money will be spent wisely on the development of our most promising young talents, and to build the next generation of National Team players. We truly hope more corporate partners will come on board to support us and support Singapore football, to ensure that the future of our local football scene burns ever brighter,” said Mr Zainudin Nordin, President, FAS.
Mr Forrest Li, Founder and Group CEO of Garena, said, “As a young company that is founded in Singapore, Garena has a deep sense of national pride. The Young Lions sponsorship will allow us to actively contribute to the local professional football scene and create opportunities for young athletes to pursue their dreams. The Young Lions are a natural choice for us as they embody teamwork, creativity and the pursuit of excellence – qualities that Garena values both on the field and in the workplace. We are delighted to extend our support to help cultivate an exceptional team that all Singaporeans can be proud of and foster a stronger sports ecosystem comprising the government, the FAS, businesses and the broader community.”
About Garena
Headquartered in Singapore, Garena was founded in 2009 by Forrest Li and his friends as they aspired to transform their passion for entrepreneurship into a great company. Forrest named the company “Garena” ‚Äì a play on the words “global arena‚Äù ‚Äì in reference to his broader aspirations to connect people via the Internet. Garena has since grown swiftly to become a leading platform provider for online PC and mobile entertainment, social & commerce and financial services across Asia, serving millions of users.
In 2010, Garena launched its first product, Garena+, an online game and social platform for people to meet, chat and play games with one another. Since then, Garena has steadily innovated and diversified its business across the Internet platform to include BeeTalk (the first indigenous mobile social network in Southeast Asia), AirPay (a payments network providing accessible financial services in ASEAN) and Shopee (a social-first, mobile-centric C2C marketplace).
For more information, visit http://corporate.garena.com.
About the Young Lions
The Young Lions team was established in 2003 with the aim of facilitating the development of promising young players by competing against older and tougher opponents in Singapore’s professional football league, the S.League. By fielding the Young Lions in the S.League, the Football Association of Singapore hopes to expose young players to top-level competition, thus aiding them in their long term development and preparing them for international tournaments.
For more on the Garena Young Lions, visit http://www.facebook.com/yglions.
