Post season tour of Burma

[The Young Bremner]

Anybody know any info on this?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... Burma.html

[Barlow Boy]

Yes pal, it’s been doing the rounds for a while, now on the o/s....

https://www.leedsunited.com/news/team-n ... in-myanmar

[Leonickroberts]

The players will be fine, I'm not worried about them (classic Daily Mail fear of the foreign - the friendlies will inevitably only be in Yangon not any of the FCO blacklisted places), but the reputation of the club picking a pre season tour to a country that's all over the news for human rights abuses doesn't fill me with confidence.

[Deleted User 728]

The key phrase in the press release on the website was "Myanmar is one of the fastest growing nations in South East Asia".

Ignore everything else : it's about getting a foothold in an emerging market before anyone else does, that's all.

We won't make a dent in China, India or any of those places with our current profile so I actually think it's a canny move in terms of shifting shirts and raising awareness.

I wonder if we'll open a club shop in Yangon or even Mandalay ?

As Ian Dury once sang,
"In the dock of Tiger Bay
On the road to Mandalay
From Bombay to Santa Fe
Over hills and far away ...
Buy our latest football kit
Buy it !
Buy it !"

[mapperleywhite]

Odd for me are the dates for the two fixtures there - 9th and 11th May, just after the season has finished. Normally friendlies are played in June and July after the players come back from Skegness or wherever.

Perhaps they're going to leave Sacko over there and hope nobody notices.......

[Deleted User 728]

The more I think about this, the more moronic it gets.

Another PR own-goal from the board, following the badge fiasco.

Someone really needs to get hold of AR and warn him before he comes up with another great idea ..

I actually think Scandinavia would be a good destination for us. There's LOADS of fans over there who come over to watch us regularly : why not reward them by playing in their back yard ? We do it with Ireland often enough, so I don't know why we can't.
It would save money and strengthen an already loyal market, if it's just the numbers they're worried about .. and I can't see it being anything else, like developing Asian football. That's all a crock, same as it was for the FA before the last round of World Cup bidding.

[Deleted User 728]

Odd for me are the dates for the two fixtures there - 9th and 11th May, just after the season has finished. Normally friendlies are played in June and July after the players come back from Skegness or wherever.

Perhaps they're going to leave Sacko over there and hope nobody notices.......

I'm sure it's purely because it's a World Cup year and most football fans will be consumed by the tournament and many will take holidays after it and therefore interest would be lower than for a normal "off" year.

[NottinghamWhite]

AR has business interests there & will be hoping to tap into the Burmese market. It's an unusual time to go & I expect any World Cup hopefuls won't be travelling.

[SG90]

Another pr disaster for AR and AK. Obviously it's for money reasons, but I don't like how we're selling our soul away to places with no interest in football. Why not Europe or South America instead?

[Another Northern Soul]

It's a post season tour and it's been planned so as to spread the LU word and get more business exposure. TBH it's a very odd choice given the 'political climate' etc but it's only the fans I feel sorry for - ours who travel and the Myanmar ones who have to watch some players who won't give a damn about it