Liverpool will be playing a series of friendlies in East Asia between 17-26 July as part of their 2009 preseason tour.

Liverpool will visit and play in Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong, with the national teams of Thailand and Singapore along with a team from Hong Kong expected to be their opponents.

The dates coincide with that of Man Utd’s pre-season tour of Asia, and will probably coincide with the Barclays Asia Trophy as well, giving the Premier League the advantage of having three of its biggest teams in the region playing local teams – an excellent build-up from the very successful 2007 pre-season involving Liverpool and Manchester United, and another test of the Asian market’s capacity to account for a majority of the Premier League’s profits (as it will eventually once they gain sufficient market share translated into TV audiences).

Fun reading: Asian fans, who do you support – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United