Scudamore brushes off Hong Kong pitch fiasco
Poor playing surface 'will not affect city's chances of hosting more BAT tournaments'
The awful condition of the Hong Kong Stadium pitch will not affect the city's future chances of hosting the Barclays Asia Trophy (BAT), English Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore assured fans yesterday.
Scudamore said the stadium was a good venue with good services and the rainy weather that threw arrangements into disarray before the start of the matches on Wednesday was an unfortunate factor over which there was little control.
When you come to Asia at this time of the year, there is a weather risk, but we play football in very bad weather in England too
"It doesn't have any effect on future decisions at all," said Scudamore. "When you come to Asia at this time of the year, there is a weather risk, but we play football in very bad weather in England too. I can find you video from last season of games played in the Premier League and the Champions League where there were very similar conditions.
"We have had six Asia Trophy tournaments so far, three in Hong Kong. All I can say is the fans are a big part of the decision [to stage the tournament here] and Hong Kong has got a lot going for it in terms of the match atmosphere. But we will not make a decision [on the venue for the 2015 event] until next year as the event is held every two years."
Nearly 36,000 fans braved the torrential rain to attend the matches on Wednesday night, which saw Sunderland upstage Tottenham 3-1 and Manchester City beat South China 1-0, while tomorrow's final is already a sell-out at the 40,000-seat venue.
Scudamore also defended the decision to give the go-ahead for the matches to be played on the waterlogged pitch, saying they had taken safety as their top priority.