Valley 'celebrate' 60-year history with relegation

While there are thousands of ways to celebrate an anniversary, the party is muted at Happy Valley after being relegated to the Second Division, the first time in the club's 60-year history.

'We did play in the Second Division before, but not because of relegation,' Happy Valley Sports Association chairman Pui Kwan-kei said. 'We are celebrating our 60th anniversary this year, but at the same time we will be relegated to the Second Division in the coming season.

'It's a pity for a club with such a long history in Hong Kong, a club which has won the First Division six times with the most recent one being in 2006. But this is the reality.

'We had problems putting together a strong side because of a lack of commercial sponsorship and we could not avoid the big drop. We were not good enough,' Pui said.

With a budget of just HK$3 million, mostly from the pockets of their club officials, Valley found themselves struggling from the start and the final nail in the coffin came on Sunday with a humiliating 6-0 defeat by Sun Hei.

Like South China, another big multisports club, Happy Valley first started a soccer team before reaching out to other sports such as swimming, athletics, basketball and table tennis to become the existing Happy Valley Sports Association.

'The Happy Valley soccer team was set up in 1950 and we played in the junior division,' Pui said. 'But it was not until 1958 that we won the Third Division title and we were the Second Division champions the following season before making our First Division debut in the 1959-60 season. We won the First Division title in 1964 and three years later we withdrew from the Hong Kong Football Association because of a change of the political environment.'