Road to gold starts at
grassroots
MILO is synonymous with grassroots development and schools for more than 70 years. They are the unsung heroes of many of our sports boys and girls who have become state and national athletes.
They are a shining example of how corporate support and sponsorship have played a huge part in the development of sports in the country.
Of late, we have had other corporate organisations coming forward to lend a hand to support and promote sports, but Milo contribution is far more reaching in grassroots development.
From the days when we recognised them being at our school meets with Milo vans to give out free cups of cold Milo, they have evolved to become a major player in promoting sports at the grassroots level, working with the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders in their various programmes.
Milo have themselves ventured out to organise programmes, especially in reaching out to remote areas.
They also partner with stakeholders like the Olympic Council of Malaysia, national sports associations, clubs, academies, and communities in activating sports activities nationwide with the objective of promoting an active lifestyle.
Milo are involved in a mind-boggling 16,000 events average per year.
They have a dedicated team headed by innovative and dynamic individuals for the last four decades, known by the title of sports marketing and sponsorship managers, such as the late Leonard Wee Chen Liang, Dina Rizal, Ng Ping Loong and currently Kerwin Lim.
Together with their team of dedicated personnel, they have moved by leaps and bounds.
Milo is firm believer that sports are a great teacher. Sports is a great teacher in teaching life values that will lead to lifelong success, like leadership, teamwork, perseverance, providing a platform to experience winning and, most importantly, failure too, being defeated, how to manage emotions, never give up and come back stronger.
Sports have the transformative power to change a person, a family, a society, a nation, and the world. The best way and time to start is from the grassroots, which have seen a lot of evidence.
Among the Milo owned programmes include:
Milo Hidup Bola Futsal Carnival – 18 years:
Provide quality platform for more than 8,000 young futsal players per year. This carnival has engaged more than 140,000 young futsal players since it inception. A tournament for young players to hone their skills. Many futsal/football stars have been discovered, such as Arif Aiman (JDT), Nik Akif (Penang FC), Muhd Asri (PDRM), Shivan (Perak FC), Feroz Baharuddin (JDT) and Sa’ap Baharom, U12 player who was drafted to join Akademi JDT, was also playing in the tournament before beginning his journey with the club.
Milo Champions Clinic:
Sports clinic helps young Malaysians learn to play sports (First Touch concept) in the right manner in 8 sessions. Working with National Sports Association and prominent coaches to develop quality coaching modules for sports clinics. With coaches like Chiew Chun Yong (futsal), Azman Adnan (football), Rashid Sidek and Daphne Ng (badminton), MABA (basketball), Tai Beng Hai (hockey, Nazmizan Mohamed (athletics).
Milo Junior Champions League (community football):
- a 3-season league that works with academies. More than 10,000 junior players playing in the 9 months long league.
- Creating a continuous platform for young children to play.
With partners:
OCM and the Paralympic Council of Malaysia are supporting Malaysia Contingent to multi-sport event. Milo, the longest partner of OCM – 68 years.
Ministry of education:
- The main sponsor for MSSM – more than 12,000 athletes per year.
- The main sponsor for the MSSM award – rewarding outstanding student athletes, teachers, and coaches. At the same time, it inspires more young children to take up sports.
Milo Senamrobik:
20-minute Senamrobik (Aerobic exercise) with primary school children. Activating 16,000 school children daily.
Supporting other 1Murid 1Sukan initiatives:
Hari Sukan with KPM, Karnival Sukan Perpaduan, Kejohanan sukan Sekolah Pedalaman P2 & P3 Sabah dan Sarawak, Kejohanan Sekolah Murid Orang Asli Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) – supporting their Kids Athletics programme, kids athletic coaching program, national state meets/open, and state meets/open.
Malaysian Amateur Basketball Association (MABA)
- National under 15 basketball competition for over 30 years. All current national players played here.
Malaysian Amateur Volleyball Association (MAVA)
- National U14 and U16 competitions for over 20 years
Table Tennis Association of Malaysia (TTAM):
- National U13 – for over 30 years Co-founder and main sponsor of Sportexcel
- creating junior sports circuits for selected sports nationwide.
Milo – Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) integrated a grassroots football development ecosystem.
This partnership has reinvigorated ties between both parties, which began in the late 1980s and 1990s through numerous grassroots football tournaments and championships that kicked off the careers of some of Malaysia’s legendary players.
Now, moving forward with a five-year game plan (2021-2025), Milo and FAM are set to take the future of Malaysia’s football scene to the next level.
Currently, there are 122 academies with 10,000 young players registered under the Suparimau Charter nationwide. The Milo/FAM partnership aims to expand the Suparimau Charter into an ecosystem of 800 academies with 100,000 young players over the next five years.
Concurrently, Milo and FAM are committed to growing the coaching cadre from the current 1,000 who are registered with the various academies nationwide to 5,000 coaches by 2026.
Another feature of the Milo/ FAM partnership is the Milo All Star Challenge, a nationwide online search for Malaysia’s next top freestyle footballers, which culminated in the grand finale.
The top eight finalists were rewarded with the once-in-a-lifetime Milo/ FAM Ultimate Experience to train at a FAM boot camp under the tutelage of national coaches alongside some of their favourite FAM st“rs – another golden opportunity for young Malaysians to springboard their football dreams into reality under this partnership.
The Milo/FAM ecosystem also complements other Milo sports initiatives, most notably the Milo Hidup Bola futsal carnival which has produced some of the country’s finest national footballers in its 16-year history, including National Under-22 Squad rising star Nik Akif Syahiran Nik Mat and Most Valuable Player (National Football Award 2021) Arif Aiman Hanapi. This partnership will help talents discovered through Milo Hidup Bola who wish to pursue a professional football career seamlessly transition into the FAM system.
Worked with more than 20 National Sports Associations to support their junior development programme/competitions.
Indeed, a humongous dedication and achievement by Milo and if only we had other big corporations involved in grassroots development, the future of Malaysian sports would indeed be bright.
But State associations and clubs also have to do their part as the sports belong to them, and they are experts in providing the infrastructure and technical knowledge to make any programme a success.
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