Linglong sponsors Uganda basketball teams

KAMPALA, Uganda (June 26, 2014) — China's Shandong Linglong Tire Co. Ltd. has agreed to sponsor the Federation of Uganda Basketball Association (FUBA) for two years.

The partnership, the first of its nature on the African Continent, extends undisclosed financial and material assistance to Uganda's national basketball team, Shandong Linglong said.  

Linglong said the sponsorship “is of strategic importance” to its market development in Africa and “will increase African people's awareness of the Linglong brand and attract some potential business partners to cooperate, thereby improving the (company's) overall sales in Africa.”

FUBA President Ambrose Tashobya said the organization is “grateful for the offer and we promise a healthy working relationship with our new partners on the block and all those others we have been working with.”

The offer includes logistical assistance to the nation's two national teams, travel and the necessary allowances to the players, the tire maker said.

The signing ceremony between Merry Wang, deputy director of Linglong Tire, and FUBA's Mr. Tashobya took place recently at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium in Kampala before Team Uganda played their Kenyan counterparts in a buildup game. Linglong Tire said the deal makes it the main partner of the national basketball teams.

Also on hand for the pact signing was Zhao Yilin, the Chinese ambassador to Uganda, cabinet ministers Hillary Onek and Charles Bakkabulindi, Olympic Committee Chairman William Blick and Omar Mandela, the head of City Tyres, Linglong's distributor in Uganda.