Sunderland strike Egyptian academy deal

Sunderland have announced a link-up with an Egyptian academy.

The Black Cats has embarked on a partnership with the Arab Academy of Science and Technology (AAST) and EL-ltthad EL-Iskandary FC to develop football in Egypt and to further Sunderland's international links in the territory.

The Alexandria-based football club and the Egyptian University want to create a youth set-up based on the principles of Sunderland's highly successful Academy.

Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn told safc.com: "This is an exciting venture for our football club. Our Academy is fantastically well-run and we are seeing the results of that with the emergence of great young players such as Jordan Henderson.

"It is going to be great for us to be able to share our best-practice principles to help to develop football in the Alexandria region and throughout Egypt."