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Column | Why Hong Kong government’s bid to scrap Kitchee’s training centre is a much bigger local football scandal than latest match-fixing allegations
All efforts to stamp out corruption should be lauded of course, but we can think of some better targets for ICAC investigators
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Who was more annoyed with this week’s revelations of alleged match-fixing in Hong Kong football – officials at Pegasus, the team involved, or rivals Kitchee?
A much bigger football-related scandal than the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s investigation has been knocked off the local news agenda by the fixing story – the government’s apparent determination to snatch back land granted to Kitchee, a year almost to the day after they opened a training centre.
All efforts to stamp out corruption in local sport should be lauded, of course, but the fixing story is most notable for its scale.
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The five arrested players – whose names and photos have been plastered all over Chinese media – are accused of taking HK$90,000 to fix four matches in the Hong Kong Reserve League.
That’s HK$4,500 each per game, a remarkably small sum on which to stake the end of your career and maybe jail. One of the players allegedly involved is said to be a finance student – he must have missed the class on downside risk.
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