Crown unveil

PPCFC staff at the press conference today. LtoR: Heang, Legg, Sokthorn, Schweingruber, Bosma, Carter, Brouwer

Phnom Penh Crown held a press conference this morning at the ASKAP Gold Investment office to announce a series of exciting new developments at the club. Head coach Sam Schweingruber has signed a new 2-year extension to his contract, which is great news for everyone involved with PPCFC. Sam had this to say to the press today: “When I first came, the club was going through a difficult time and it has been hard work to get the right structure and organisation in place. We have continued to progress and were Champions last year. With the strong leadership and support of President Rithy Samnang, the hard work of all the staff and the potential of the young players we have, makes me believe that PPCFC has a great future ahead of it. I am very happy to be chosen to continue to serve the club and to bring further success to the team.” Joining him are two new members of the club’s coaching staff. His new 1st team assistant coach is Jonathan (Jonny) Carter. With over 15 years of coaching experience in the UK, USA, Singapore and Hong Kong, the 39-year-old Welshman holds a coaching A-License and was most recently head coach of Kowloon Cricket Club in Hong Kong. He has run coaching courses and sports camps for many years in Asia and is the author of highly-respected coaching manuals. Another new face is our Academy Technical Director and Performance Analyst, Tom Legg. Tom (27) has coached in the USA, India and the UK and run coaching programs in Kenya and Sierre Leone, where he most recently was the head coach at the Craig Bellamy Foundation and Performance Analyst for the Sierre Leone national team. Englishman Tom holds a UEFA B coaching License and will work closely with our Academy head coach Bouy Dary.

The list of announcements continued with the unveiling of the club’s new website, www.PPCFC.com, which will work in tandem with our Mobile App – the 1st-ever in Cambodia and available as a free download on Apple and Android mobile phones – to bring our fans the most up to date information on Crown’s matches, players and what’s happening at the club. Working very closely with YouFoot.com, these are two very exciting developments in bringing the club even closer to its rapidly-growing fanbase both in Cambodia and abroad. We encourage all PPCFC fans to visit the website and download this free App and keep in touch with the club.

Crown are also very happy to announce the appointment of Dentsu Sports Asia (DSA), the Singapore-based sports marketing company, as our strategic partner. The two-year deal will see DSA provide our club with a host of marketing, branding, commercial and sponsorship opportunities. “DSA is always on the look-out for top football clubs in the region and PPCFC definitely fits the bill with its grassroots programme and its desire for commercial growth. We want to start this initiative of forming collaborations with clubs such as these to fully develop football in the south-east Asian region and beyond,” said Kunihito Morimura, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dentsu Sports Asia. Crown President Rithy Samnang, added, “We are proud to have formed this strategic partnership with Dentsu Sports Asia, a leader in the sports marketing industry, and we are confident that this collaboration can take this football club to greater success in the near future.”

Crown announced their 18-man squad that will travel to Vietnam tomorrow for Friday’s Toyota Mekong Club Championship match against the V-League Champions Becamex Binh Duong (8pm, live on Bayon TV). It is: Yaty, Ary, Da, Borey, Sothy, Thierry, Boris, Sokumpheak, Suhana, Makara, Pheng, Srin, Sokthorn, Bosma, Pellegrino, Obadin, Bisan and Ngwa. Two of the players were introduced to the press for the first time, Koen Bosma and Va Sokthorn, although they have already played a number of practice matches for Crown and a third, Sary Matnorotin, who is in Japan right now and last season appeared for AEU, was also included in the news round-up.