Editorial | Hong Kong football has more to do to achieve its goal
Match-day gloom may have lifted only a little for Hong Kong fans looking for excitement and higher standards of play
Hong Kong football faced a crisis when the season kicked off last year, with concerns about the future of the sport in the city. Attendances had fallen, three teams dropped out of the local premier league and there was yet another match-fixing scandal. The departure of popular Hong Kong team coach, Jorn Andersen, also left fans disappointed.
Since then, the gloom has lifted a little. The number of spectators at local matches – while still too low – has increased, a new under-22 league is providing valuable experience for young players and some have been snapped up by clubs on the mainland. The new coach, Ashley Westwood, won over fans with six straight wins. A young team was, however, narrowly beaten on Wednesday in the Hong Kong-Guangdong Cup. The soon-to-open Kai Tak Sports Park, meanwhile, will provide new venues, fuelling talk of European clubs visiting.
But the need to revitalise the local game, developing better players, bigger crowds, improved facilities and more revenue from sponsors and broadcasters remains. Eric Fok Kai-shan, chairman of the Football Association of Hong Kong, China in an exclusive interview with the Post, said he believed there was momentum and promised to consider measures that might help.
Fok said he was open to legalising betting on local matches. There have been calls for this, to create more excitement, draw fans, and increase revenue. It is argued that illegal betting on games takes place anyway and it would be better to regulate gambling, ensuring the sport benefits. But Fok is right to be cautious about what he concedes is a sensitive issue affecting the whole community. The priority must be to prevent match-fixing and illegal gambling within the game, as a series of scandals over the years has severely damaged its reputation. Corruption must be rooted out.
Big ideas for reviving the sport range from setting up an independent body to run the premier league, rather than the football association, to fielding a Hong Kong team in the Chinese Super League. As the season progresses, work is needed on many fronts to improve standards, create a stronger football culture and give the city’s fans the excitement they deserve.
