Phnom Penh, 13 September 2019 – International Development Coaches from English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur Football Club (“Spurs”) are in Cambodia today to launch the third phase of the “Training for Trainers on Grassroot Football Development,” a joint initiative between AIA (Cambodia) Life Insurance Plc (“AIA Cambodia”) and the Cambodia National Competitions Committee (“CNCC”). The initiative was launched earlier this year in February in conjunction with Spurs with the goal of enhancing the standard of Cambodian football at the grassroots level while helping local communities live healthier, longer, better lives–AIA’s central brand promise.

The two Spurs coaches, Anton Blackwood and Shaun Harris, have been training over 50 of their local counterparts from the CNCC and the Cambodian Football League intermittently throughout the course of this year. The third phase is to focus on developing a holistic training approach that aligns to the Spurs methodology known as the 4-Corner Model.

Explaining the 4-Corner Model, Spurs coach Anton Blackwood said: “The third phase of our training programme will focus on sharing the Tottenham Hotspur philosophy of planning a tactical cycle and linking the 4 corners of football development, namely tactical, technical, psychological and social, to further enhance the coaches’ knowledge of youth development.”

AIA Cambodia has been able to bring the two coaches to Cambodia thanks to its exclusive role as the Global Principal Partner of Spurs. As part of this agreement, Spurs have based three of their top coaching staff within Asia to assist AIA in helping young people develop their interest in football while enabling them to learn more about the health benefits gained from regularly playing sport.

Pauline Teoh, Chief Executive Officer of AIA Cambodia, said, “This football training programme has been running throughout this year. By inspiring and upskilling the young people in the country, AIA Cambodia demonstrates the commitment and delivers our brand promise of helping local people live healthier, longer, better lives. We expect that this initiative can develop the quality of grassroots football training in Cambodia and boost the interest level and participation in football, particularly for children and young adults.”

Like with the previous two phases, the third phase of the training programme took place at the American University of Phnom Penh and included both classroom and practical sessions out on the pitch. This is the penultimate phase of the initiative, with the final leg kicking off later this year with a focus on how the coaches can link all the methodologies they have learned throughout the course to ensure they can implement structured and comprehensive training programs for youth teams in the future.

The coaches have previously learned about how to develop the best training environment along with more granular detail on how to plan and create optimal football-coaching sessions for younger age groups.

One of the participating coaches, said: “It is an honour to receive training from expert coaches who work at the top level of professional football. I learned a lot from the previous two sessions, so I’m sure this next phase will be even more interesting as we go into greater depth on football skills and training strategy.”

About CNCC

Cambodian National Competitions Committee (“CNCC”) is a governing body of Football Federation of Cambodia (FFC). In late 2016, CNCC was established for a purpose to look after domestic football matches for a reason to improve the Hun Sen Cup and the Metfone Cambodian League, and it has His Excellency Dy Vichea as a Chairman. CNCC has 4 offices: Technical & Competition, Administration, Finance, and Marketing & Media Communications. At present, CNCC runs the Hun Sen Cup and the Metfone Cambodian League.

About AIA Cambodia

AIA (Cambodia) Life Insurance Plc (“AIA Cambodia”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of AIA Group Limited (“AIA” or “the Group”), the largest life insurer in the world by market capitalisation.

AIA has a presence in 18 markets in Asia-Pacific – wholly-owned branches and subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, New Zealand, Macau, Brunei, Cambodia, a 97 per cent subsidiary in Sri Lanka, a 49 per cent joint venture in India. AIA was also granted approval as preferred applicant to operate in Myanmar through a 100 per cent wholly-owned subsidiary. AIA is a market leader in the Asia-Pacific region (ex-Japan) based on life insurance premiums and holds leading positions across the majority of its markets. It had total assets of US$256 billion as of 30 June 2019. Through an extensive network of agents, partners and employees across Asia-Pacific, AIA serves the holders of more than 34 million individual policies and over 16 million participating members of group insurance schemes.

AIA Cambodia offers market-leading life insurance products and services to meet the growing need for financial protection and long-term savings of people in Cambodia. AIA Cambodia is committed to contributing to the Kingdom’s economic and social development over the long term, and help Cambodians live healthier, longer, better lives.

About Tottenham Hotspur

Founded in 1882, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has a tradition of playing an entertaining and attacking style of football. The team finished fourth in the 2018/2019 Premier League season, securing UEFA Champions League qualification for a fourth year in a row and were a Champions League finalist this year for the first time in their history.

Tottenham Hotspur also has:

•  A global following in excess of more than 460 million, with strong supporter bases across the UK, Europe, USA and Asia
• Over 190 Official Supporters Clubs worldwide, including a fully mobilised and active Club in Cambodia
• A newly-built state-of-the-art training centre with a new world class stadium opening soon that will sit at the heart of a major regeneration for North London
• Commercial partnerships with globally-recognised brands including AIA Group Limited (AIA), one of the world's leading providers of life insurance services, and Nike, the world’s leading sports footwear and apparel company
• An award-winning Foundation that has created 3 million opportunities to help enhance the lives of people in its local community through education, employment, health and social inclusion programmes