Vietnam's HAGL FC's brilliant deal with Arsenal

Top-tier V-League football club Hoang Anh Gia Lai scored a successful trip to English Premier League club Arsenal, with the clubs agreeing to mutual cooperation in youth training and marketing promotion, Quang Huy reported in the Thanh Nien newspaper. Following a four-hour discussion Wednesday with coach Arsene Wenger and commercial director Adrian Ford at Arsenal headquarters, the club agreed to train Vietnamese youths and coaches, construct an institute of football in Vietnam, and send a delegation to survey HAGL to help set up youth training system.

Arsenal also pledged to give HAGL authority to exclusively rights to its commercial copyright in Vietnam’s market including souvenirs, television rights, and trademark promotion.

A detailed agreement between the two clubs will be signed in early December in England when HAGL players travel there for a training trip to prepare for new football season in Vietnam. The team will have two friendly matches with Arsenal on 12 and 19 December, coach Wenger confirmed.

Wenger told HAGL chairman Doan Nguyen Duc his visit to Arsenal was greatly appreciated as his club wants to establish strategic relations with a partner in South East Asia. The HAGL delegation to Arsenal was given a warm welcome and attended a lunch with the club leaders and players such as goalkeeper Jens Lehmanns, defender William Gallas, midfielder Frederick Ljungberg and striker Emmanuel Adebayor.

See also: Tottenham and Vietnam's HAGL FC talk business (25 Oct)