The Vietnam News Agency’s online newspaper, VietnamPlus and French news agency AFP today launch an interactive webpage on the Premier Leagues in England, Italy, Germany, France and Spain.

The flash graphics product has been designed by AFP’s experts and written in Vietnamese to meet an increasing demand by the country’s huge amount of football fans.

Apart from regular sports news and pictures on VietnamPlus, the new webpage now brings real-time updated information from Europe , including match schedules, scores, statistical analysis team profiles, players and coaches’ history for free at http://bongda.vietnamplus.vn .

“The page was born because matches of popular European leagues are no longer broadcast free and most appear on pay TV channels,” said Le Quoc Minh, VietnamPlus’s editor-in-chief.

“Not all Vietnamese football fans have the chance to see or access fee-paying television stations, but the demand for information on football matches needs to be met as soon as possible,” said Minh.

“The page, with all the latest news, which is presented in detail and in an attractive format, is expected to be useful not only to football fans but also for commentators and football experts,” he added.

“We are pleased with the agreement to provide this multi-medium content with VietnamPlus,” said Eric Wishart, AFP’s Asia-Pacific Director.

AFP and Vietnam News Agency are already partners in areas like news and pictures, but in the digital age, we need to come up with more attractive and diverse information services to meet the demands of the increasing number of internet users and mobile phone subscribers in Vietnam , he said.

Establish in November 2008, VietnamPlus has taken the lead in applying new media technologies. In January this year, the online newspaper launched a multi-language news service on the mobile network, the first of its kind in Vietnam . In May, it launched a mobile web version, becoming the first news website in Vietnam that runs in all platforms – website, mobile web and mobile application.

Just one day before the 2010 World Cup started, the e-newspaper and AFP put into use an interactive sports flash graphics service on the world’s largest football event, attracting a large number of viewers.

AFP is well known globally and has 1,400 reporters and 700 freelancers working in 165 countries worldwide./.