South China Morning Post
Advertisement
Advertisement
The newly-laid pitch at Hong Kong Stadium pictured in September. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Opinion
James Porteous
James Porteous

Hong Kong football fans betrayed as fear of offending motherland shuts them out of home derby against China

Excuse that Hong Kong Stadium pitch won't be ready in time for must-see World Cup qualifier is simply unbelievable

James Porteous
James Porteous
Why you can trust SCMP

I’d bet that from 10am on Wednesday morning the Cityline ticket website will be down. If you’ve had the misfortune to try to use it, you might say I’m not exactly sticking my neck out – it’s probably down right now.

But on Wednesday tickets for the most-anticipated Hong Kong national team football match for years – vs China in World Cup qualifying – go on sale: Hong Kong are playing better than they have in a long time, it’s a ‘derby’ game, and there’s only going to be 3,000 tickets available.
Yet when the teams play at Mong Kok Stadium (capacity 6,679), the 40,000-capacity Hong Kong Stadium, about 8km south as the crow flies, will be empty, unless the crow lands for a breather.

READ MORE: Why is new HK Stadium pitch okay for rugby but not World Cup qualifier v China 9 days later? HKFA demands answer

The government has spent HK$100 million and nine months installing a new pitch at Hong Kong Stadium, it having been a joke since the stadium was opened in 1994. Despite this investment of taxpayers’ money, the ‘experts’ at the Leisure and Cultural Services Department who have managed the pitch so well for the last 20 years have judged that it will not be fit for the game on November 17, because it will have hosted the Asia Rugby Sevens Olympics qualifying tournament on the 7th and 8th.

In an angry 1,400-word blog post this week, Mark Sutcliffe, the Hong Kong Football Association chief executive, illustrates most emphatically the extent of his, and we assume the HKFA’s, displeasure at this decision; it is well worth a read.

Though he absolves the Hong Kong Rugby Union of any blame, he asks why the HKFA was not consulted over the rugby competition, why that event could not be moved to Siu Sai Wan Stadium (it is unlikely more than 10,000 will attend) and why other stadia around the world can handle higher usage.

READ MORE: 'Extensive bag searches' and HKID checks for powderkeg Hong Kong v China World Cup clash

Whether the LCSD have been ‘encouraged’ to do so or not, who knows? Let’s just say that my offer to bring in an expert from Fifa to provide an independent second opinion was not taken up
Mark Sutcliffe

“I have worked in sport for over 30 years and I simply don’t understand [it],” he writes. “Clearly and to some extent understandably, these [LCSD] experts have erred on the side of caution.

"Whether they have been ‘encouraged’ to do so or not, who knows? Let’s just say that my offer to bring in an expert from Fifa to provide an independent second opinion was not taken up.”

Sutcliffe says it will be the “biggest disappointment” of his career here and that the HKFA will be looking for HK$3-4 million in compensation for lost ticket sales (a bit of a cheek, you might argue, given the oodles of government cash they receive).

He adds: “Some commentators have suggested that the decision … is more to do with the recent booing of the national anthem. They might say that, I couldn’t possibly comment.”

READ MORE: Impossible to separate sport and politics as Hong Kong’s football team rained on Xi’s parade

Well I can – the decision is a disgrace and the LCSD are either stupid or liars, or at least being made to appear so.

The rugby is 335 770 minutes of play over two days, less than four eight football matches, in fact considerably less given that there’s 50 per cent fewer players on the pitch at any one time. If the LCSD really are stupid enough to have shelled out for a pitch that can’t recover from that in nine days, then the ICAC should investigate who pocketed that HK$100 million.

No, it’s quite clear that deep-set fear of offending the motherland is the reason. The Chinese national anthem has been booed before every Hong Kong home game in the qualifiers so far, apparently causing fury among mainland fans who tuned in to CCTV to watch HK v Bhutan.

With a much, much larger audience set to watch on November 17, the prospect of 40,000 heartily insulting March Of The Volunteers, waving banners declaring ‘Hong Kong is not China’ etc, has made someone in power blanch.

Perhaps fans brought this on themselves? But we are still supposed to have free speech in Hong Kong, plus governments are expressly forbidden by Fifa to interfere with local FAs.

Having repeatedly pleaded with fans not to boo, Sutcliffe – who blames the booing on the China Football Association’s “bizarre (and some would say racist) posters about the Hong Kong football team” – admits: “I am becoming resigned to the fact that it will happen again. Fifa won’t care whether 40,000 or 6,700 people boo … the choice of stadium is actually irrelevant from that perspective.”
But 6,700 will be easier to police and keep relatively quiet. Having seen the mammoth security operation in Shenzhen for China vs Hong Kong in September, I believe officials will have been ordered not to allow the game to go ahead at Hong Kong Stadium.

The pitch is a convenient excuse with the LCSD taking on scapegoat duties. But one thing’s certain: Hong Kong football fans are being royally – or perhaps People’s Republically – shafted.

 

Post