It was a win-win result in the Xtep Cup invitational match at Hong Kong Stadium yesterday as Birmingham City defeated a Hong Kong League XI 3-2.
While the English Premier League side, owned by Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung Ka-sing, registered a hard-earned victory in the first match of their pre-season Asia Tour, the crowd of 13,000 also brought an income of HK$1.4 million to the Hong Kong Football Association, said organisers of the event. An additional HK$1.25 million was donated by Birmingham City to the HKFA.
'We would like to thank Birmingham City for their generous support,' said HKFA chairman Brian Leung Hung-tak. 'We only had to provide board and accommodation during their stay in Hong Kong as not only did they decline to charge an appearance fee but they also made such a generous donation.'
Overall, the HKFA is expected to make a profit of more than HK$1.5 million.
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish was happy with the win, especially as his side were one goal down at half-time.
Scott Dann opened the scoring for the visitors with a header in the 21st minute, but his effort was cancelled out four minutes later by Citizen striker Sandro, who pounced on a poor clearance by Sebastian Larsson inside the box and drilled home to level the score. The home side went ahead in stoppage time at the end of the first half when Tai Po forward Christian Annan punished the visitors for standing off him by placing his shot in the bottom right corner, beyond goalkeeper ben Foster who was making his debut for the Blues after joining from Manchester United.