Kids play ball at a recruit session held by they HAGL-Arsenal JMG football academy in Quang Tri Province in June

Several Vietnamese clubs want to adopt the business model that Premier League club Arsenal is helping to develop at HAGL-Arsenal JMG in Gia Lai Province, but translating intention into reality is proving difficult.

Arsenal trains local juniors and signs up promising unknowns from elsewhere to develop into top-flight footballers who can then be sold to other clubs.

In this way, Arsenal avoids having to rely much on corporate sponsorship.

This summer, to give the latest example, the third richest football club in the world after Manchester United and Real Madrid, according to Forbes, has just sold Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure to Manchester City for 41 million pounds (US$67 million).

The Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group owns and runs the club of the same name in Gia Lai, making it easier to adopt a successful business model for the club.

Its talent scouts roam Vietnam looking for promising footballers as young as 12 years old to emulate Arsenal.

Unlike Gia Lai Province, places like Nghe An, Dong Thap, Khanh Hoa and Da Nang abound in talented young players and are a rich source of potential recruits who might get nowhere without the backing of a committed sponsor like Hoang Anh Gia Lai.

Khanh Hoa is one of several clubs struggling to survive. Its president, Le Tien Anh, admires what they are doing at HAGL-Arsenal JMG but says it is very difficult to do the same.

“In football generally, some sponsors only want to advertise themselves and have little or no interest in the game, let alone its future. When they’ve had enough, the sponsorship ends,” Anh says.

“It’s not easy to find a decent coach, so some clubs have to hire foreign coaches. Hoang Anh Gia Lai can do it successfully because of the company’s reputation and presence.”

Source: Nguoi Lao Dong