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SCMP Reporter

Video taping spectators at Mongkok Stadium is unnecessary and impractical, a senior police officer said yesterday.

  The Mongkok Divisional Commander, Chan Lik-kin, was responding to a suggestion made by Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) chairman Victor Hui Chun-fui, who said filming spectators would make it easier for police to identify and arrest troublemakers.

  Chan said the police had other channels to identify hooligans when necessary.

  'I personally don't think video tapes will do much to help. The stadium is too big for our cameraman to cover all the spectators. And you never know when and where a disturbance will happen,' said Chan.

  'A video tape will help us if we can get useful shots, but most of the time our cameraman may not be on the spot.

  'To make arrests, all we need are eyewitnesses. It doesn't really matter if we have the video tapes.'   Local soccer officials and players have complained about the police handling of an ugly scene during last Thursday's First Division League match between Instant-Dict and Sing Tao at Mongkok.

  The families of Sing Tao's expatriate players were seen fleeing from a missile attack, which was believed to been started by disgruntled South China supporters. Defender Rudi Hedman's two-year-old daughter was nearly struck by a plastic water bottle during the incident.

  The police have been accused of not taking any action to arrest those involved. But Chan said the police had taken action, adding that arrests were unnecessary at the time.

  'Arrests are not always the best way to control crowds,' said Chan.

   'Our aim was to calm the spectators. If we made any arrests at that time, we might have provoked another disturbance. We didn't want this to happen and we didn't want to disturb the majority of the crowd, who were enjoying the game.

  'Instead, our police officers asked a few of those who started the trouble to leave the stadium. Once the culprits left, the situation returned to normal.

   'It proved that our handling of the situation was effective. Just because we didn't arrest anybody doesn't mean we took no action.

  'I can guarantee we have sufficient manpower to handle any kind of situation.'   HKFA assistant general secretary Yung Hung-yau said the association would meet the police to decide if more officers were needed for the league game between South China and Instant-Dict on April 15 at Mongkok.

  'At the moment, we have booked Grade Y of police manpower, which means there will be one inspector, one sergeant and seven police constables for the game. We expect there to be 3,000 to 6,000 spectators at the game,' said Yung.

  'We will talk to the police to see if it is necessary to have more policemen on duty.

  'We trust the police have enough manpower to handle any outburst.'   A Grade Z police presence - one inspector, two sergeants and 15 police constables for an estimated crowd of 6,000 to 8,500 spectators - has been arranged for Thursday night's Viceroy Challenge Cup between Sing Tao and Guangzhou Apollo.

  Instant-Dict meet Uhlsport-Rangers in a second-phase league match at Mongkok tonight.

  The Dickies are currently two points behind leaders South China after five games.

  In the first match of tonight's double-header, fourth-placed Golden face struggling Eastern.



Video tapes impractical, claim police