Hong Kong's unabated love affair with English football was in full swing this week. Maybe it was the rare experience of being exposed to top-quality football or perhaps it was the heat making them a bit crazy, but either way fans were turbo-charged and particularly festive when the Barclays Asia Trophy rolled into town.
Almost everything English Premier League power Chelsea did was cause for great cheer. 'But there are more than a few fans of Villa here as well,' said Hong Kong native Ronald Kwok, who proudly wore the claret and blue Villa kit. 'Not everybody in Hong Kong roots for the super clubs.'
Well, maybe not everybody does, but it certainly seems that. Hong Kong stadium was almost uniformly bedecked in Chelsea Blue on Wednesday night and again last night. Try as I might, I could not find one of Kitchee's distinctive pink strips anywhere in the crowd. They may be champions of Hong Kong, but they were hardly the home team in their clash with Chelsea and last night against Blackburn.
The biennial competition was played for the first time in Hong Kong in 2007, and this year marked a triumphant return after a less than stellar reception in Beijing in 2009. Mainland fans barely filled 10,000 of the 66,000 seats in the Workers' Stadium for the final between Tottenham Hotspur and Hull City two years ago.
'The experience in Beijing was still good because we were breaking very new ground at the time,' EPL chief executive Richard Scudamore said this week. 'It was a challenge logistically and quite a different experience, but you have to go and try these things. It will happen over time in mainland China and there is undoubtedly a learning curve.'
Hong Kong is clearly a different animal. 'It's a very mature and knowledgeable fan base here in Hong Kong,' Scudamore said. 'The interest has already been built so it is obviously easier to fill the stadium and sell tickets. The local Hong Kong FA work well with us as and are used to putting on these type of events.'
Since assuming office in 1999, Scudamore has been instrumental in taking the EPL to lofty heights internationally. Looking to cash in on their unmatched global popularity, in 2008 Scudamore proposed adding a 39th game to the schedule for all 20 teams, to be played overseas in diverse locales like Miami, Sydney, Shanghai, Bangkok, Beijing and Hong Kong. The reaction from domestic media and foreign associations was fast and furious.