English Premier League chief gives Hong Kong’s Asia Trophy organisation a glowing report – despite vowing never to return after 2013 farce

Richard Scudamore admits he feared the worst earlier in the week when rainstorms lashed the Hong Kong Stadium pitch

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Hong Kong fans cheer Liverpool at the Premier League Asia Trophy. Photo: SCMP / Edward Wong

Published: 2:02pm, 20 Jul 2017Updated: 10:44pm, 20 Jul 2017

The English Premier League’s top man gave a glowing appraisal of Hong Kong’s handling of the Asia Trophy – though he admitted he feared a repeat of the farcical scenes of 2013 was on the cards as the city was lashed by non-stop rain earlier in the week.

Richard Scudamore, the league’s executive chairman, said he had effectively crossed Hong Kong off the list for hosting the biennial event after the 2013 edition attracted negative headlines all over the world when the Hong Kong Stadium pitch was reduced to an embarrassing quagmire by summer storms.

As the rain bucketed down on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Scudamore might have been wondering why he changed his mind, but the pitch – relaid at a cost of some HK$30 million – held up well for Wednesday night’s opening games between Liverpool, West Bromwich Albion, Leicester City and Crystal Palace.

Richard Scudamore, executive chairman of the English Premier League, speaks at a football social development conference in Hong Kong on July 20, 2017. Photo: AFP / ISAAC LAWRENCE

“Of course [I was worried],” said Scudamore in a round-table interview on the sidelines of a joint Asian Football Confederation-Premier League conference at the Grand Hyatt hotel on Thursday.

“Having said that there’s always been huge confidence in the pitch – because four years ago we effectively said there’s no chance of this thing coming back.