'Results are not that important at this stage, we should pay more attention to their performance,' said current national team coach Tsang Wai-chung who, through his role in the HKFA's technical department, is one of the group's supervisors.

'Playing regularly as they are now will not help them only. It will help their coaches [Li Chin-pang and Lam Hing-lun] too, because they will be able to continuously identify their weaknesses, work on them, and see the boys' response. The players are still teens around 17 years old, they still have lots of room for improvements, especially on the physical side as well as their speed. They have to improve, don't forget they will be playing better opponents in the future.'

Those words - the future - crop up often when Hong Kong 08 are discussed. The squad's formation is a legacy of the HKFA's aborted development deal with their counterparts in the Netherlands - the KNVB. While the multimillion-dollar agreement was ripped up after the disappointment of Hong Kong's failed 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign, the Dutch involvement at least cemented the idea that some form of long-term youth development plan was needed.

'Five years is not long-term in football, but it is in Hong Kong because here everything needs to be so instant,' explained Kwok Ka-ming, the head of the HKFA's technical team. 'The fifth year, the Beijing Olympics, is not really the goal. It's just the start.'

The Hong Kong 08 set-up is, in fact, something of a compromise. No longer one of the government's 13 elite sports included in the Sports Institute, Hong Kong football lacks the resources - both financial and physical - to run a full-time residential scheme which is generally the worldwide blueprint for such youth development programmes.

Yet something was needed which would circumvent the failings of the local clubs, who are perceived to lack the quality of training and the playing opportunities to nurture an improved crop of youngsters. The result is a group of boys who train three times a week and are paid a monthly allowance of $500, but whose training, physiology, nutrition and even their education is overseen and measured by the FA.

'Having systematic training helps a lot. Things are so much more serious and competitive here. Sometimes I have felt scared just in training,' said Victor Chan Man-kin who, at the age of 16, is one of the youngest players in the team.

'It's so different compared with the school teams I played with. Sometimes they just didn't care about losing an inter-school match, nor would they work really hard to improve.'

Apart from everyday school work, every week the players gather at the FA headquarters at Ho Man Tin for special English classes. Their tutor, Rochelle Kwok, thinks that, off the pitch, the youngsters are no different to other boys of a similar age.

'They play computers after school, they go shopping, they do what typical Hong Kong teens do. Sometimes they won't answer my questions because they are afraid of being teased by their classmates if they give the wrong answers. Again, you see that in schools every day.'

The commitment required from the boys is so great that even before the squad was set up, the HKFA arranged three meetings with their parents to make sure everyone understood how great the demands would be on their children. Even so, some of the players admit the first year has not been easy.

'Having to go to school and train maybe four times a week, sometimes I became so tired I just didn't want to get up or do anything.' said 17-year-old defender Frank Leung Kam-fai. 'But if I wasn't selected for the team, I would have to go out and find a job so I could help my family's finances.'

The boys' sacrifices have been paying dividends. In a penalty shootout in a recent Junior Shield tie against Second Division Mutual, the teenagers converted seven out of seven spot-kicks against former national team goalkeeper Chan Shu-ming. It was a display of confidence that amazed Kwok Ka-ming, even before he found out that they all new exactly who they were facing.

Further reward awaits them today if they can claim their place in the Second Division, but failure now, or even at some or all of the bigger events on the horizon - the All-China National Games in 2005, the Asian Games in 2006 and of course the Beijing Olympics - will be part of a greater learning process.

Hong Kong 08 is just the start of what should be an ongoing cycle. Behind this crop, the HKFA already has a similar under-15 group starting their football education and a selection of 11-year-olds whose love for the game is being nurtured in a far more relaxed environment. 'Each group we produce should be an improvement on the one before,' Kwok explained. 'The most important thing is that we continually improve what we are trying to do.'