By David Owen
December 6 – Qatar has extended its imprint into one of the backwaters of world football, with the announcement that Ooredoo, the renamed Qatar Telecom, is becoming the official partner of the Myanmar Football Federation (MFF).
The sponsorship deal includes all national men’s and women’s teams from the country still more usually known in the west as Burma, and youth teams. There will also be a grassroots programme that will see another Ooredoo-sponsored entity – the elite French club Paris Saint-Germain – bring qualified coaches and training programmes to Burma.
The football announcement comes less than six months after Ooredoo was one of two foreign companies awarded a national mobile communications licence by the government in Rangoon. Qatar, a hydrocarbon-rich Gulf state, has invested heavily in recent times to raise its profile in world sport. Its most notable, but also most controversial, success to date is winning the right to stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
After years as a virtual pariah state, ties of all sorts between Burma and the rest of the world have been proliferating since 2010, when military rule was replaced by a new military-backed civilian government. Aung San Suu Kyi, the main figurehead of the struggle for democracy in the country, though prevented from taking part in the election, was released from house arrest shortly afterwards. US President Barack Obama visited after his re-election in 2012.
Ross Cormack, CEO of Ooredoo Myanmar, said the company was “proud” to show its support towards the MFF and “committed to building sports and sportsmanship across the country.
“Football,” he said, “brings the entire nation together from all walks of life”.
U Zaw Zaw (pictured), MFF president, said the federation was “very honoured to receive such tremendous support from an international organisation like Ooredoo”.
Myanmar is currently 140th in the men’s rankings, sandwiched between Suriname and Tahiti.
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