Anglian Brings European Football Closer to Indian Players

NRI-Owned MNC, Anglian Holdings, Picks Up Stakes In Shillong Lajong FC & Danish Club FC Vestsjælland To Provide New Avenues For Indian Talent

• Marks the first NRI investment in a top-division I-League club
• Creates an Indo-European pipeline for bi-directional exchange of talent, knowledge and expertise
• Provides opportunities for talented players to train and showcase their skills globally and at the right level
• Plans to set-up a world-class academy in India with technical expertise imported from Europe
• Charts aggressive talent hunt program to identify Indian talent

Kolkata (India), 29 February 2012: In a first-of-its-kind initiative in Indian football, Anglian Holdings, an NRI-owned multi-national corporation with diverse global investments, today announced the acquisition of stakes in Shillong Lajong FC, a top-tier football club from Shillong, Meghalaya. The company also made public its recent investment in the Denmark-based football club, FC Vestsjælland (also known as FCV Vikings), with the strategic intent of creating a pipeline for bi-directional exchange of talent, knowledge and expertise between the two clubs.

Vision

Anglian Holdings is a young and dynamic company with interests in various exciting sectors including sports. The company is looking at innovative ways of creating synergies between its various projects and partners by promoting Indian skills and ingenuity through its extensive global network. The company feels that rigorous training and the experience of professional football needs to be imparted to footballers at a young age in India. The investments in the two clubs are intended to provide a channel for Indian footballers to train with and eventually showcase their skills across the world at the right level.

Anglian Holdings will facilitate transfer and exchange of knowledge and expertise between FC Vestsjælland and Shillong Lajong FC at the player as well as coach and staff levels with the intention of upgrading the standards and providing deserving players and coaches with the opportunity of proving themselves on a global stage. An example of a path could look like:

Dhruv Ratra, CEO – Sports & Marketing, Anglian Holdings said, “Our association with football stems from our deep-rooted passion for the sport that all of us at Anglian share, coupled with the desire of seeing Indians compete and do well at the highest levels. We would be actively looking at scouting, training and promoting Indian football talent, using Shillong Lajong FC and FC Vestsjælland as channels to take Indian football to the world”. “We are extremely grateful to Shillong Lajong FC and FC Vestsjælland for providing us with the opportunity to work together in this endeavor”, he added.

Partners

Shillong Lajong FC was established in 1983 in Shillong, Meghalaya with the prime objective of improving the diminishing standard of football in the state, and to spot, train and nurture local talent. The club takes great pride in being a successful community-owned football club, and has contributed immensely towards unifying the entire North-Eastern part of India. After the investment by Anglian Holdings, Shillong Lajong FC will continue to function as a community-owned club. Anglian Holdings, through its investment, will own a minority stake in the club and will support Lajong in building bridges of talent across the diverse communities of the North-East. It would aid in intensifying Lajong’s efforts in this direction, by spotting talented kids from remote regions and training them and taking care of their education in Shillong. The company intends to build the Lajong brand across the rest of India, and as a destination where talent from anywhere in India will be nurtured.

Commenting on the alliance, Larsing Ming Sawyan, General Secretary, Shillong Lajong FC, said, “We are delighted that Anglian Holdings has come forward to support Lajong and we believe that it is a step in the right direction as far as Indian football is concerned. Lajong literally translates to ‘Our Own’ in the Khasi language, and in Anglian we have found a perfect partner with the same synergies and beliefs as Lajong. We are also appreciative of FC Vestsjælland and are confident that their expertise and training knowhow will help Lajong’s players to take their game to the next level.”

FC Vestsjælland is a 1^st division club based in Slagelse, Denmark. The football club boasts of a 100 year sports development organisation behind them. The recently upgraded Slagelse stadium with a capacity of 10,000 is the club’s home ground. The club has a strong training program with 12 training fields and works with 22 local partner clubs that provide talent to the club.

Kurt Andersen, President, FC Vestsjælland, said, “FC Vestsjælland was the first club in Northern Europe to sign and train two footballers from North Korea, and with this investment from Anglian Holdings we are continuing our efforts towards exploring newer horizons and building new networks. We are looking forward to working with Shillong Lajong FC for a mutually beneficial relationship for the betterment of both clubs.”

About Anglian Holdings:

Anglian Holdings is a multi-national conglomerate based out of Dubai with offices in India, Switzerland, UK and US. Anglian Holdings oversees a diverse variety of global financial vehicles based in Germany, India, Spain, Switzerland, UAE, UK and US. These vehicles extend investments and partnerships into a diverse array of business interests, including steel, commodities trading, energy, real estate, luxury retirement homes, leisure resorts, sports, business incubation and lifestyle, amongst others.

Anglian Holdings’ subsidiary in India, Anglian Business Solutions will be spearheading its initiatives in the country in three main sectors – sports, physical commodities trading and steel.  To know more about Anglian Holdings please visit – www.anglianholdings.com

About Shillong Lajong FC:

Shillong Lajong FC is a top division I-league club established in 1983 in Shillong, Meghalaya with the prime objective of improving the diminishing standard of football in the state, and to spot, train and nurture local talent. Headquartered in Shillong, Lajong has access to the youth population in the North-East and hence the football talent right from a young age. Lajong is under professional management with an established fan base across the North-East; one which is rapidly expanding across the country and the sub-continent.  To know more about Shillong Lajong FC please visit – www.shillonglajong.com

About FC Vestsjælland:

FCV Vikings is based in Slagelse, Denmark and has a state of the art stadium with a seating capacity of 10,000 and over a dozen training grounds. FCV Vikings has a huge fan base in Denmark and is one of the clubs to watch out for in Europe. The club is owned by Kurt Andersen, the former chairman of Superliga team AGF Aarhus. Kurt is a visionary who brought the first two North Koreans players into European football and dreams of doing the same with Indian players. To know more about FCV Vikings please visit – www.fcvvikings.dk

For further information, please contact:

Vaibhav Puri
Country Manager, Football

E:  vaibhav@anglianfootball.com
M: +91- 9582593577
W: www.anglianfootball.com