Wembley final set to slip the Hong Kong net
FEET-UP time over the next week or so for soccer nuts in the territory, but a varied, highly appetising programme on the box is tempered by one (probable) absentee that has plenty of ingredients for a thriller.
Famous last words, of course, because it could turn out to be a dud that explains their humble Premier League positions, but I'm rather sorry we look like being deprived - barring a last-gasp scheduling surprise - of Sunday's League Cup final between team-of-the-moment Middlesbrough and Leicester City at Wembley.
It is not on the Wharf Cable, ESPN or Star roster and my inquiry to TVB, in the off-chance it was destined to crop up out of the blue on the Cantonese-language Jade channel, was met by a (not unexpected): 'I don't think we have the rights'.
I'm not sure it is so cut and dried; this, after all, is a different competition to the Cable-monopolised Premier League and FA Cup.
If Cable have no plans to show it, it should not be beyond TVB's jurisdiction to win back a small dose of approval from those footie buffs without the pay-channel.
Still, I would advise Boro or Foxes fans not to wander too far from a television on Sunday night, just in case - TVB have been known to swoop late before.
Bryan Robson was recently named Manager of the Month and the Teessiders are on a bit of a roll, even given their failed appeal against the three-point deduction which leaves them well in the relegation frame.
Juninho, by all accounts, is in irresistible form and the thought of seeing him, Ravanelli and Emerson pitting their skills against Leicester's precocious, home-grown talent Emile Heskey on the wide Wembley surface is a particularly mouth-watering one.
If disappointed Boro fans here draw a blank on Sunday, there is the consolation of knowing their FA Cup semi-final against unfashionable Chesterfield next Sunday will be on Cable here (9.30 pm HK time). Ditto Wimbledon-Chelsea, in an earlier 6pm slot.
Tomorrow's featured Premier League match also has an unorthodox time slot, 6pm (11 am in the UK) for Chelsea's London derby against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
With a disturbing upsurge in the old hooliganism bogey, one imagines this has much to do with policing considerations in the UK.
It has got to the make-or-break phase for the Gunners' fading Premier League challenge; not even a draw with Ruud Gullit's 'Culture Club' will be sufficient now.
One wonders, though, how pre-occupied the Blues will be with their Cup plans.
The live ESPN game early on Tuesday couldn't have been chosen better if mid-table tedium was to be the theme; no disrespect to Leeds or Blackburn but this Yorkshire-Lancashire 'War of the Roses' hardly shapes as a humdinger.
Expect greater global enthusiasm in the wee hours of Thursday, however, for ESPN's live showing of the Juventus-Ajax European Cup first leg semi-final, followed by a delayed (10 am) showing of the Dortmund-Manchester United match.