ING To Sponsor AFC Asian Cup 2007

Dutch global financial services company ING has signed a deal to become an Official Sponsor of the AFC Asian Cup 2007, the continent's premier national

team competition.

The sponsorship extends ING's involvement with football in Asia and follows its sponsorship of the AFC Champions League, the continent's premier club team competition.

ING will be the exclusive Bank and Insurance sector sponsor and joins,

Explaining ING's decision to extend its association with Asian football,

"Through various arts and sports sponsorship, ING hopes not only to

Ron van Oijen, CEO of ING Life Insurance Korea, expressed that"Our success in the 2005 AFC Champions League sponsorship has paved the way for our involvement in the AFC Asian Cup 2007. As a global financial institution, ING is active in many Asian countries. ING is proud to be associated with the Asian Cup 2007, which will attract viewers around the region of over a billion.

Mohamed bin Hammam, President of the AFC, General, welcomed the

partnership, saying:

"The 2004 edition of the Asian Cup showed that interest in national team

"Asia may be a vast and disparate continent but quality football helps bring the football family closer together.

"The involvement of a respected and well known international institution

Welcoming ING to the family of blue-chip companies involved in Asian

"We are delighted to welcome ING into the family of Asian Cup sponsors.

ING's support of the Asian Cup will help us to build the competition in the long-term while serving their broader sponsorship marketing objectives.

"We are confident that ING's long and historic sponsorship experience with football globally will be an added benefit for our sport in Asia."

The Asian Cup 2007 will be held in the ASEAN region in July 2007. The 14th edition of the competition will, for the first time, be co-hosted, with Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia the venues.

Twenty-four of Asia's top teams will begin qualification for the 16 spots available at the tournament in early 2006. The draw for the Qualifying Round will take place on January 4, 2006.

The partnership was officially announced at the Four Seasons Hotel in

Bangkok.Present were:

-- Alexander Rinnooy Kan, Chairman of ING Insurance Asia Pacific

-- Ron van Oijen, CEO of ING Life Korea

-- Jim Brown, CEO of ING Life Thailand

-- Ian Mathie, Sr. VP - Asean and South Asia of World Sport Group

About ING

ING Group is a global financial services company of Dutch origin with 160 years of experience, providing a wide array of banking, insurance and asset

About World Sport Group

World Sport Football is the Hong-Kong based subsidiary of World Sport

About the AFC Asian Cup

The AFC Asian Cup is the premier national team competition in Asia. The

Press enquiries:

Chavalit Thongrom

ING Life Thailand

Tel: +66-0-2263-3900 Ext. 9008

Email: [email protected]

Sheel Kohli

ING Insurance Asia/Pacific

Tel: +852-9100-8576

Email: [email protected]

Polly Leung

ING Insurance Asia/Pacific

Tel: +852-2913-8792

Email: [email protected]

James Scholefield

World Sport Group

Tel: +65-9125-1644

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE: ING

--Distributed by AsiaNet (www.asianetnews.net)--

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