Vietnam’s Saigon Football Club and Japan’s Tokyo Football Club are slated to promote cooperation in football school business and overall club management following a comprehensive partnership agreement they have recently signed.

The deal had been signed on April 30 but was only announced on Friday.

Their scope of cooperation will include community contribution activities and the establishment of a football academy.

Currently, Saigon FC is playing at V. League 1, the top professional football league in Vietnam, and ranked second after two rounds, while FC Tokyo is competing in the Japanese top-tier football league J-League and stands in third place after the first round.

Leaders of Saigon FC said the club has chosen to partner with FC Tokyo, which it sees as a role model, as it is inspired by the Japanese football club’s philosophy that “Football is a tool to develop the human personality.”

According to FC Tokyo’s statistics, it carries out some 1,500 charitable activities annually, seeking to educate its players through community events and encourage them to “give away without expecting something in return.”

This philosophy might explain why FC Tokyo has more than 30,000 spectators on average for each match, which is the largest attendance in J-League.

In addition, FC Tokyo has a good background in youth training in Japan.

With high-quality infrastructure and a sophisticated training system, FC Tokyo has nurtured many young talents who later became players for national football teams or professional football clubs in Spain, Germany and Portugal.

In comparison, Saigon FC has proven its capacity in youth training via the purchase of a sports center for training young players.

“Saigon FC has proven its capacity and convinced FC Tokyo that it shares the same football philosophy and the same charitable causes, resulting in this comprehensive partnership agreement,” said Ho Quoc Minh, general director of the Saigon Football Development JSC, which owns Saigon FC.

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