Employers are urged to allow their workers to go home earlier tomorrow to enable them to watch the live telecast of the Malaysia-Vietnam football final at the 25th SEA Games in Vientiane, Laos.

Youth and Sports deputy minister Razali Ibrahim said the match would be carried live by Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) at 6pm tomorrow.

"Perhaps the employers can allow their workers to go home earlier or provide television sets at the offices to enable them to watch the match," he said in reply to a supplementary question from Senator Fatimah Hamat in the Dewan Negara today.

Razali said the national squad would definitely appreciate the support of fellow Malaysians, and such support could spur sports development in the country.

"It cannot be measured monetarily, but I'm sure employers' support for football development will be deeply appreciated by our national squad," he said.

Replacing rakan sukan

Earlier, to the original question from Fatimah on the ministry's efforts to encourage corporate bodies and big companies to fulfil their corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the area of sports, Razali said the government intended to introduce a new approach under the CSR Sponsorship Incentive in the first quarter of next year.

He said this was to replace the Program Rakan Sukan (Friends of Sports Programme) that was introduced in 1994.

Razali said under the new programme, the government and sponsors would discuss to find a new formula to benefit both sides before the sponsors would be matched with a sport or sports association, and this to be jointly agreed by the sponsors and the respective national sports bodies.

This way, he said, the sponsors would have variety of choices and more strategic positions in drawing up their marketing plans, as well as attract new companies to sponsor sports activities.

- Bernama