16 Jul Maybank Offers 20,000 Schoolchildren a Rare Les Bleus Experience

Maybank brings joy to twenty thousand children from schools in the Klang Valley and Selangor for a lifetime experience of watching one of the top English football club, Chelsea Football Club (Chelsea FC) team play with the Malaysian Harimau Muda football team on 21 July 2011 at Stadium Bukit Jalil.

“Maybank is pleased to sponsor 20,000 tickets to enable the schoolchildren from over 100 schools in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur adopted by Maybank under Bank Negara Malaysia’s school adoption programme to watch top world class Chelsea footballers play live in Malaysia. Our sponsorship is part of the Bank’s mission of promoting excellence among school children where sports is a powerful medium to inspire the children to achieve this,” said Lim Hong Tat, Deputy President and Head of Community Financial Services at a special ceremony to hand tickets to the schools held in Menara Maybank today.

Twenty schoolchildren from SMK Bandar Baru Sentul and SMK Wangsa Maju Seksyen 2, Setapak received the tickets from Lim. Also present were San Boon Wah, Managing Director of ProEvents International, the Exclusive Chelsea Asia Tour Organiser and teachers from the two schools.

“This sponsorship also fits with the Bank’s corporate responsibility in a holistic approach to our engagement with our adopted schools combining the development of education and sports. Apart from our commitment to education and facilities support to our schools, we are also happy to encourage the development of sports in giving exposure to schoolchildren to meet sports superstars. The experience of watching a live performance of top football stars from Chelsea FC and the Malaysian team may motivate our young to take the sport as a career too,” added Lim.

Lim also said that the football is one of the popular sports in Malaysia and Malaysians have a long tradition of interest and a huge following of the English Premier League (EPL). “We believe that giving our school children a rare opportunity to watch top class EPL players will help this sports in the long term as it will provide motivation to our young who have dreams to one day represent the Malaysian football team or even an opportunity to play in the EPL to pursue that ambition,” he said.

Maybank’s sponsorship will also enable the Bank to send participants to the Chelsea Kuala Lumpur Blue Pitch Programme launched last month to promote the development of grassroots football in the region and in Malaysia.