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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Chelsea to spend more time with local fans

CHELSEA will do more than just play an exhibition match when they visit Malaysia for the third time in eight years next July.

Premier League clubs were heavily criticised in the past for their money-making trips to the Far East without giving anything in return but last season's English Premier League and FA Cup champions promised it would be different this time.

For one, the Blues will not jet in and out as they did on the last visit in 2008 but instead will set up camp for a week in Kuala Lumpur as preparation for the 2011/12 season.

Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay said their stars including Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and John Terry will also conduct coaching clinics for aspiring youngsters besides laying the seeds of a football community programme to benefit underprivileged children.
"We are absolutely delighted to be returning to Malaysia. The facilities here are first class and it is important that in our preparation we have good facilities, good opponents and a feeling of family around us.

"It will be the first team which come here. We intend to have a week's training camp here and with special projects for our young fan base," said Gourlay at a press conference to announce the visit in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya yesterday.

Gourlay stressed Chelsea is serious about contributing to the development of Malaysian football and spoke of introducing here the club's Help a London Child's Sport in the City campaign, which provides free sport to disadvantaged children.

"We want to do things a bit differently this time. We just do not want our tour to be about playing games. We want to leave a legacy behind so it is very important to help develop grassroots programmes wherever we play.

"It is very much about coaching and getting to the kids. In London, we have a programme where we reach out to underprivileged youngsters in the city.

"That is our strategy going forward," said Gourlay, who added that the early announcement of their pre-season plans is meant to show their seriousness to contribute to Asian football development.

FA of Malaysia deputy president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah hopes Chelsea's visit will lead to a long-term collaboration between FAM and the club.

"We have collaborated before when we sent Bunyamin Umar and Baddrol Bakhtiar for training at Chelsea and we would like to reactivate that collaboration.

"It would be good if we could send our young players to train there and Chelsea's star players come here to conduct clinics for the benefit of the young.

"We are proud to host them and hope to have more teams come here and make Malaysia a pre-season hub," said Tengku Abdullah.

Chelsea's planned trip follows their earlier visits in 2003, when they beat Malaysia 4-1 en route to winning the FA Premier League Asia Cup, and in 2008, when they won 2-0 against the national team in a pre-season friendly.

The exact itinerary will be announced later. Tentatively, Chelsea will head for Bangkok and another unnamed Asian destination following the match against Malaysia at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.

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