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Molten sponsors Futsal Premier League
Bob Hope, Molten Sports Chairman, spoke to SGB - Sports and Outdoor about what this means for the company.
SGB: What motivated you to become sponsors of the league?
Bob Hope: It's something we've been looking at for some time. One of the reasons we've been looking at futsal is because the majority of the major football events in the UK are tied up, like you've got the FA completely tied up with Umbro, the Premier League with Nike, so really for Molten to break into the football market and them being the biggest ball manufacturers in the world, we were looking where we could go. Futsal is developing in South America and now throughout Europe, it's very big, so we took the decision, let's look at futsal which was really an untapped small market in the UK and we've just developed a brand new futsal ball for the league in the UK.
SGB: What's different about the futsal ball?
BH: First of all a futsal ball is a size 4, and they're low bounce. In other words, they don't bounce like a standard ordinary football. So there's slightly more density in the core of the ball to give it a low bounce which is what the sport needs.
SGB: What are the benefits for Molten in sponsoring a young, growing league?
BH: We make every inflatable ball there is right down to water polo, but what we've got in the football industry is Molten's brand is not as well known as it could or should be. If you go to the basketball or volleyball industry, it is the number one brand in the world because it's used at the Olympics. So what we're trying to do is look at opportunities in the football market to get brand awareness for Molten, and to develop new products - and the GOLAZO is brand new.
