KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — The Malaysian Football League (MFL) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Spanish football giant La Liga to develop educational programmes and strengthen the professional spirit in the local football industry.

MFL and the La Liga Business School will develop sports-related studies to help professionals such as the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and Malaysian League clubs including all involved in the football industry starting from early next year with a sports marketing course (March 27-30).

MFL chief executive officer Kevin Ramalingam said the collaboration covered every aspect of football in the country and not just technical matters.

"The aim of the collaboration is to impart their theoretical, practical knowledge base and network of relationships and to provide a medium for the entire local football industry to acquire knowledge.

"This is an honourable achievement in which the Malaysian League has come to the fore and I believe the partnership will benefit MFL and the Malaysian League in particular in educating football management officers to handle more professional and competitive teams,” he said after signing the MoU in the presence of delegates from both sides at Wisma FAM today.

Meanwhile, La Liga Business School director José Moya said this agreement highlights La Liga’s commitment to the development of professional football at an international level and to world-class training and education.

"We are very pleased to be here today and for the first time we are contributing not just with our knowledge but also that of our professionals already here in Malaysia together to develop the sports programmes”, he said.

Following this agreement, both parties will launch the Sports Marketing Program aimed at individuals from clubs, technical personnel from MFL and FAM, other Malaysian sports bodies and the general public.

La Liga Business School is a La Liga educational department established to train talents in the sports industry sector and assist in sharing professional expertise in sports management.

This latest collaboration sees Malaysia follow in the footsteps of Mexico, Egypt and Colombia, which have partnered with La Liga, thus proving La Liga’s commitment to providing training and education as the foundation of professionalism in the sector. — Bernama