KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 25 — Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh believes the sports industry in Malaysia is not actually facing a lack of sponsorship, but rather industry players have not been successful in convincing potential parties to become sponsors.

She said the failure, among others, is because proposals sent to the parties concerned also includes unnecessary matters listed.

"If they sponsor money, they want it to be used for sports development and they don’t want to see it used to pay salaries or used for other unnecessary purposes.

"Just like we also give sports matching grants of 30-40 million a year, we have made an assessment of their expenditure list. Sometimes there are things in the proposal that we don’t think is necessary,” she said in the SAMBANG podcast broadcast on the Malaysian Sports Writers (SAM) YouTube platform yesterday.

Meanwhile, Hannah described the RM1,000 sports tax relief covering the expense of sports training fees as a game changer for the country’s sports industry.

In fact, she said she was happy when the tax relief was extended to taxpayer parents starting next year.

"If you are a taxpayer, not only your children will benefit but also their parents and grandparents because we want to have sports for all groups and this is a game changer that we are fighting for,” she said.

Meanwhile, when asked about her plans for 2025, Hannah said she wanted to focus on developing the youth and Rakan Muda.

The ministry will also launch a nursery in the Kuala Lumpur Sports City for athletes with children. — Bernama