VietNamNet Bridge – Yamaha Motor Vietnam and the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) today signed a sponsor contract. Accordingly, Yamaha Vietnam will be the major sponsor of the men’s national football squad and the Olympic squad in 2008-2010.

Yamaha Vietnam to cooperate with the national football squad for two years more.

Yamaha Vietnam will provide the men’s national squad with US $250,000 per year, in two years. The funding is the same with the contract signed between two sides in 2007. However, the VFF convened the sponsor to sign a two-year contract.

Among three major sponsors for the men’s national squad in the past three years – Yamaha, Lotus Iron, and Li Ning, only Yamaha will continue its cooperation with the VFF.

The sponsor contracts between the VFF and Lotus Iron ended this October and Lotus Iron did not extend the contract. Li Ninh, meanwhile, will also stop its provision of costumes to Vietnamese footballers next year and will be replaced by Nike.

Notably, US $500,000 from Yamaha Vietnam will be divided to both the men’s national and the Olympic teams, but it is forecast that this amount of money is not enough. Though the VFF signed a record contract with Nike worth US $5 million for five years, this sum of money is for costumes and sports equipment.

The VFF, thus, will have to seek other sponsors, a job which is said to be very difficult in this situation.

The men’s national squad is the most famous brand of the VFF so it is more easily to seek a sponsor. Two other brands, V-League and the First Division tournament, do not have sponsors after PetroVietnam and Alpha Petrol withdrew.

So far this year the VFF has spent around US $80,000 for the men’s national squad and the Olympic team, though only the Olympic team had a ten day training in Nanning, China. The VFF had to pay US $40,000 for only five days of the national team at the five-star Sheraton Hotel in Hanoi to prepare for the friendly game against the Olympic Brazil this August.

(Source: TT&VH)