The English Premier League came to Vietnam in the shape of the Premier Skills Project that worked with coaches and referees in Ho Chi Minh City.

First up were referees Keith Hackett and Steve Dunn - both former Premier League referees who can also boast refereeing in World Cups, FA Cups and European Championships amongst their achievements.

The pair worked with young referees and discussed and advised on the finer point of refereeing law. They were later joined by community coaches Johnnie Garside of Everton FC, Edwards of Queen’s Park Rangers FC and Charlotte Bishop of Portsmouth FC.

The courses in Vietnam were jointly organised by the British Council, Premier League and Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and took place at the Thong Nhat stadium. The project was also supported by key local partners including Save the Children Vietnam, Blue Dragon Foundation, Hanoi Youth League and two British Council projects Connecting Classrooms and ELT.

This courses were aimed at enabling community coaches to apply what they have learnt by running football coaching programmes in their own local communities.

With the assistance of the three Premier League coaches, the Vietnamese coaches strengthened their knowledge and understanding of inclusive community development through football.

Premier Skills has already successfully run in 23 different centres in 16 countries worldwide. In Asia training courses have already taken place in South Korea, China, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Premier Skills has achieved huge impact under the first stage of the programme, with over 1,000 coaches trained, 300,000 young people reached, and over one million football-focused English language materials distributed globally.

British Council Vietnam director Robin Rickard commented: “The Premier League is followed and loved all over the world and it’s a great way to connect people and bring them together to share skills that they can take back to their own communities.”

For a flavour of the Premier Skills work in Vietnam take a look at this fabulous set of pictures that captures both the learning, the fun and coming together of coaches and football fans from the UK and Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City - October 2011