Newsroom

...before the Premier League...There [was] no live TV coverage- I listened to the matches on the radio every Saturday afternoon and in the evenings.

I had a few days holiday last week in Dalat with Martine ( Ba Thuy will be happy to hear this from her comment a couple of days ago). It is a very pretty place, and its vegetable production reminds me of my home county in the UK, Lincolnshire. We spent most of out time mountain biking in the hills. I think I need more practice. I found it was very difficult but my guide later told me we had done the "easy" route!

Thanks for your views on climate change. I hope Anna from DFID can address some of your points. Meanwhile, Prince Andrew has sent a message to Prime Minister Dung to express sympathies on the loss of life from the recent flooding. I hope the international community can work with countries such as Vietnam who will be most affected by climate change.

The weekend brought better news in addition to the fact that the flooding started to recede. The football match between Arsenal and Manchester United was a great advert for the Premier League- very exciting match, and I was personally happy with the result! Manchester United is a very good team, and always posed a danger. Their goal was very impressive, and kept the tension going until the final whistle.

Le Nhi Hoa’s comments reminded me of great British players of the past in the days of the First Division, before the Premier League. When I was at school in the 1970s and 1980s, teams such as Leeds United (Sprake, Harvey, Cherry, Giles,Yorath, Bremner, McQueen, Clarke, Lorimer, Jordan, Madeley, Reaney), Liverpool (Dalglish, Keegan, Smith, Grobelaar, Rush etc), Ipswich, Nottingham Forest. There were not many foreign players in those days, and no live TV coverage- I listened to the matches on the radio every Saturday afternoon and in the evenings.

So Britain has a long football heritage. That's why I'm quite excited about a project the British Council will be implementing in Vietnam early next year. It is called "Premier Skills" and will bring Premier League football coaches and former players to Vietnam. Its purpose is to work with Vietnamese community, sports and educational counterparts to implement a programme which not only improves children's football skills but also their English language skills. Further information of the project will be updated on the British Council website from early next year. I'm hoping that they will let me take part too!

- Mark Kent, British Ambassador to Vietnam