Arsenal Football Club is delighted to announce that it will become the first ever Premier League team to play a match in Vietnam, with the first-team squad visiting Hanoi in July as part of the Club’s pre-season Asia Tour 2013.
The Arsenal first team will play a match against the Vietnam national team in the 40,000 capacity My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi on Wednesday, July 17 (kick-off time 7.00pm local time).
"Arsenal has so many loyal supporters in Asia and we are delighted to be visiting Vietnam in July to play a match in Hanoi. Everyone at Arsenal is proud to be the first Premier League team to play a match in Vietnam and to be spending time in this wonderful country"
Ivan Gazidis
The confirmation of the visit follows negotiations between Arsenal and the Vietnam Football Federation in March, when Club executives travelled to Hanoi. These negotiations have resulted in Arsenal becoming the first Premier League side to ever play a first-team match in Vietnam.
The match forms part of Arsenal’s Asia Tour 2013, in which the Club has already confirmed a visit to Indonesia, where the Gunners' first team will play against the Indonesia national team on Sunday, July 14, at the 88,000-capacity Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta.
Arsenal’s Asia Tour 2013 will also see the first team play in Japan for the first time in over 40 years, when the Gunners play against Arsène Wenger’s former club - Nagoya Grampus at the 45,000 capacity Toyota Stadium on Monday, July 22. The tour will end in the Saitama Stadium, when Arsenal face the Urawa Reds in Saitama on Friday, July 26.
Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis said: “Arsenal has so many loyal supporters in Asia and we are delighted to be visiting Vietnam in July to play a match in Hanoi. Everyone at Arsenal is proud to be the first Premier League team to play a match in Vietnam and to be spending time in this wonderful country. Arsène Wenger, the players and all the staff have hugely enjoyed our tours to Asia in the past two years, and we are all looking forward to visiting Vietnam as part of our Asia Tour 2013.”
The Asia Tour 2013 will be Arsenal’s third successive pre-season trip to Asia. In July 2011, the Arsenal first-team squad visited Hangzhou, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, playing a match in each country and also taking part in many activities with supporters in both countries.
In July 2012, the Arsenal first-team squad once again visited China, this time playing a match in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium, and also in Hong Kong. The team also visited Malaysia again, playing a match in Kuala Lumpur’s national stadium. During the tour, a huge number of activities were once again organised involving Arsenal players and Asia’s passionate supporters.
Ticket details for the Vietnam match and further details regarding Arsenal’s Asia Tour 2013 will be confirmed as soon as possible.
Supporters can visit www.arsenal.com/asiatour2013 and keep up to date with all news and activities being planned for the tour.
Arsenal Football Club would like to take this opportunity to thank the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group and Eximbank for their organisation and support of the Club’s visit to Vietnam.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
