Premier League revolution in Hong Kong? Clubs want city’s FA to share power
- Top-flight clubs are discussing changes they could make to the city’s domestic football, as low revenues force them into action
- FA chiefs ‘have no expertise’ when it comes to promoting the game, says Lee Man president Norman Lee, who adds: ‘There needs to be a new mindset’
Hong Kong’s leading football clubs are planning to try to wrest control of the local Premier League from the city’s football association.
Norman Lee Man-yan, president of Lee Man, said a “new mindset” was urgently required, and insisted the FA was incapable of promoting its domestic competition.
Lee said the top flight’s 10 clubs (its 11th team, HKU23, are operated by the FA) unanimously want to form an independent company to oversee the division, using the model adopted in the cash-rich English equivalent.
The Hong Kong clubs have drawn up a draft memorandum of understanding, and first approached the FA last year.
“There seem to be a lot of obstacles from their side, and they are not very keen to talk with us,” Lee said. “There is a history of them as the exclusive agency running all Hong Kong football affairs. Trying to break through their mentality is very tough, but there needs to be a new mindset.”
Lee Man averaged gates of 817 for home matches last season, with only Kitchee and Eastern regularly drawing more than 1,000.
“Crowds are very small, but we have no promotion of Hong Kong football,” Lee said. “There is a consensus among the clubs, they cherish this idea, and [Kitchee president] Ken Ng is keen.”
In 2022, Premier League clubs formed their own committee, with the aim of generating more revenue and lowering costs. The initial plan was to reassess after three years, but it became more pressing but after gate receipts last season, from 151 Hong Kong league and cup matches, totalled only HK$4.65 million (US$595,000).
Eric Fok Kai-shan was appointed Hong Kong FA chairman last year, a position created after previous incumbent Pui Kwan-kay filled the president’s role vacated by Fok’s father, Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, after 26 years in post. The previous FA president was Timothy Fok’s father, the late Henry Fok Ying-tung, who served for 27 years.
“The HKFA are the organisers, they schedule matches and book stadiums, but they have no expertise in promotion,” Lee said. “It is not enough to have posters on the sides of buses or in MTRs. It is not the HKFA’s fault – they fulfil a lot of their responsibilities ... but they do not know anything about promotion.
“Promoting the game is our grand plan. You need to think outside the box, and we would hire experts to do this. But if the FA will not loosen their reins, we cannot change anything.”
Lee estimates he backs Lee Man to the tune of HK$30 million annually, and “gets only a few million back”. “The only way our clubs can make any money is to sell players,” Lee said. “I am not doing this for monetary gain. It is like a mission for me. I want to develop Hong Kong football, and be part of it.”
He would “absolutely not” consider relocating Lee Man to the Chinese Super League. A league linked to the Greater Bay Area – the Chinese government’s scheme to link Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province – has previously been mooted, but Lee would prefer to welcome teams from those cities into the Hong Kong structure.
“I want to build this club and strengthen Hong Kong football,” he said.
Lee would not support lowering the number of foreigners allowed in Premier League teams from six, because “we need to strike a balance between the quality of play and development of players.”
He is also against committing teams to start matches with two local under-22 players. “They had this policy in the Chinese Super League, and it was disastrous,” Lee said. “I do not want any players to feel protected, they need to fight for their spot.”
Unlike national team coach Jorn Andersen, who favours scrapping at least one of the city’s cup competitions, Lee is keen to retain all three, but would back another Andersen idea, of the league splitting, midseason, into title and relegation divisions. “It would increase competitiveness and attract people,” he said.
