Arsenal and their Europa League group opponents FC Cologne have agreed to swap videos that detail each other’s strength and weaknesses, according to the German club’s assistant manager.
Manfred Schmid and the club’s head of video analysis travelled to Liverpool to meet with Arsenal officials on Sunday to hand over their videos to the Gunners.
Arsenal will then give Cologne the match analysis from their own video team on the games that the German club have requested.. Speaking to German tabloid Bild, Schmid said:
“We had a very good conversation and a nice idea-sharing. In the coming days we’ll get from Arsenal the videos of their games that interest us, and we provided them with our material.”
The reason behind what Bild term as the “Anti Espionage Pact” is the fact that any team can get their hands on such video clips from other clubs anyway and Schmid explains that this just cuts out the middle man, and the trouble of acquiring the tapes:
“Today you can not prevent the opponent from getting the videos about other clubs. So it simply simplifies the game preparation for both. “
Arsenal will face Cologne at the Emirates on September 14th, and they will then head to Germany for the second group match on November 23rd.
