Sponsorship with a difference

Bangladeshi conglomerate City Group extended a helping hand to the Bangladesh Archery Federation (BAF) with a package aimed at enhancing the performances of archers with the ultimate target of winning at least one medal in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

With the slogan 'Teer Go for Gold', City Group yesterday signed a five-year agreement with the BAF which will see the conglomerate providing Tk 1.80 crore for the first year, starting from January. The funding will be increased or decreased based on the performances of the archers, who have been given the target of improving their scores from 655 to 680 over the next five years.

Usually the sponsors who provide money to national federations do not play any further role but City Group have worked with the BAF for the past six months to prepare a road map for the coming five years to achieve their targets in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as the 2022 Asian Games.

"We have reached this stage after overcoming a lot of hurdles in the past 15 years. We finished bottom in our first international tournament -- the Asian Archery Championships in 2003 -- but we improved our position in the next two years to finish 11th out of 27 participating teams in the Asian Games. Now, we have 12 gold winning archers," said BAF general secretary Kazi Razibuddin Ahmed Chapal at the signing ceremony at the BOA auditorium yesterday.

"Now, we have found a partner -- Teer -- to achieve our target to win at least a medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and grab a gold medal in the 2022 Asian Games,"  Chapal said as he introduced their partners -- Teer, a product of City Group.

Shoeb Md. Asaduzzaman, executive director, sales and marketing of City Group, gave a presentation about their agreement and development policy before explaining how the conglomerate became interested in becoming involved with archery.

"I was watching the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics on TV and the commentator introduced Bangladesh as one of most populous countries in the world with no medal in the Olympics. Instantly I turned off the TV, feeling ashamed of the way Bangladesh were introduced to the world. Later I discussed this matter with my colleagues. We think shooting and archery can be disciplines that can bring Bangladesh medals in the Olympics and we have chosen archery," Shoeb explained as the reasons behind their big initiative.

Shoeb said that they would provide money to groom archers from the grassroots level through a five-year development programme under local and foreign coaches and also for sponsoring some of the national events. He added that they would also sponsor the national archery team in the 2017 Asian Archery Championships to be held in Dhaka in November.

However, he warned that the funding may be increased, decreased or even that the contract may be cancelled depending on the performances of the archers year by year.

"It is evident that if the players are not given any target of improvement in training, then development is not seen. So, the target of improvement each year has been set," the executive director explained.