SAMSUNG Zambia yesterday unveiled a five-year sponsorship deal with the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) for the development of Futsal football in Zambia.

Samsung country manager, James Chona who declined to disclose the amount value of the sponsorship said at Press briefing at Football House in Lusaka yesterday that it was difficult for the company to reveal the amount at this stage because it was a long term project.

Chona said Futsal football was a growing sport in the world and had won some accolades world-wide in producing renowned footballers and that his company felt duty bound to be part of the development of a growing sport.

"It is an honour for us to be here as Samsung.

"We looked at the opportunity to come into sponsorship of the Futsal league with our colleagues; we want to be part of the successful story in developing soccer stars for the future," Chona said.

He said it was easy for the company to sponsor the sport because it was a natural progression for the mobile company adding that it wanted to be part of the development of the sport and nature young talent through the sponsorship.

Chona said Samsung had been in Zambia for three years and that during the years that it had partnered with a lot of organisations like the National Olympic Committee (NOC), International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Government to help the thousands of young people realise their dreams through the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC).

He said his company was honoured to have partnered with FAZ in helping the young players become future champions.

And FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya said his association was privileged to start a programme which had the full backing of a major sponsor like Samsung.

Kalusha said it was important for the association to plan for the future of football in the country and that it was also important to raise awareness of football for the youth.

He said the association wanted to bring significant development of grassroot football saying FAZ was giving opportunities to young players that had been able to progress through sustainable programmes.

Kalusha said FAZ had a strong commitment to the development of football saying that without a healthy grassroot and sustainable development programme, the sport cannot flourish and Zambia could

never be champions of Africa.

"FAZ is really privileged to have good partners on board, when you look of the youths today, there is a lot of destruction, but if football is practised we can have a number of people playing it,"

Kalusha said.

And Futsal Committee vice chairman, Mauro Sanna said more than 300 young players played football every week, saying he was happy that the young players were playing in a good environment.

Saana said the beauty of the game was that the youth would not only develop in skills, but would also relate to one another and being disciplined.