HAGL pleased with Gunners pact

A local football club, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) signed a partnership contract with the world-famous English club Arsenal on 6 March in HCM City.

The partnership calls for a new football academy in Vietnam in the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) Province of Gia Lai and technical support from the HAGL football team as well as commercial, marketing and business support.

“This is a great chance to help Vietnamese football catch up with international football. We are very excited about the opportunity,” Doan Nguyen Duc, president of HAGL club, said at the ceremony.

“We’ve recognised, that Vietnam is a country full of love for football and we are delighted to have found a partner who shares the same goals as us – to develop the local game at all levels and help provide the foundations for the club to have a genuine presence in the region,” said Keith Edelman, Arsenal managing director.

The construction of the Arsenal Academy in Gia Lai Province will begin soon on a three-hectare complex, which broke ground on Monday.

The total investment for the academy complex is estimated around US$4mil coming from the Arsenal and HAGL clubs.

The academy, around 10km from Pleiku City, will have two training grounds, 30 twin rooms for trainees, coaches and experts, as well as dining rooms and a health club.

“The first candidates will be chosen from April in Vietnam as well as all over the world and the first training course is scheduled to run in September,” Duc said.

Academy players from 12 years old will be free provided all expenditures for training, accommodation and meals as well as high-quality education and English study.

Each course will open every two years with a maximum 20 players and run for seven years.

These 20 players will be selected from 10,000-15,000 candidates based on Arsenal’s standards and requirements.

Arsenal will invite HAGL technical staff to its Hertordshire training centre to study training methods and in turn will send representatives to Vietnam.

“We aim to train players for Europe football. Therefore, these players will help to increase quality of Vietnamese as well as Asian football in the near future. We believe that there will be some Asian football stars from the academy,” director Keith Edelman said.

The academy is based on the successful model of Arsenal JMG academy operating in Thailand and another in the Ivory Coast where famous players Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue live.

In addition, Arsenal representatives also pledge to improve HAGL’s revenues via sponsorship, membership, ticketing and merchandising.

The HAGL club is now one of the leading football teams in Vietnam.

“To ensure the development of our football team, we have submitted our request to build a new modern stadium with 25,000 seats in Pleiku City to local authorities. If accepted, construction will be started next year,” Duc said.

VNS