SPORTS REPORTER

Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) yesterday signed a three-year partnership with Japan-based Molten Corporation -- a renowned manufacturer of sports equipment and automotive parts -- naming the company as its official football partner.

The agreement comes nearly three months after BFF appointed local brand Dour as the national team’s kit partner.

This marks the first time BFF has formalised such a deal, with BFF vice-president Fahad Karim and Takashi Ozaki, leader of the Molten Asian Group, signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on behalf of their respective organisations at the BFF House.

Under the deal, Bangladesh will purchase 2,000 Molten footballs annually at a discounted rate. Molten will also provide an additional 2,000 footballs free of charge each year.

In recent years, BFF has already been using Molten footballs across various competitions, purchasing 3,130 footballs last year alone.

“I’m very happy because I had a lot of discussions with Fahad and finally, I am here to support Bangladesh Football Federation so that they can strengthen the national football team,” Ozaki told reporters at the BFF House.

Fahad noted that BFF usually purchases footballs for competitions using funds from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the new agreement with Molten will save them Tk 50 lakh annually, which will be spent on buying other equipment in line with suggestions from the technical and national teams committees.