Commercial sponsorship in sports should be tax exempted, say lawmakers
- Au Nok-hin and Luk Chung-hung say tax exemptions would help revitalise the city’s soccer development
Lawmakers Au Nok-hin and Luk Chung-hung want commercial sponsorship in Hong Kong sports to be tax exempted to help revitalise soccer development in the city.
The two LegCo members were guests at a forum held on Saturday that discussed ways to promote soccer, which in recent years has seen a decline in interest with dwindling attendances at Hong Kong Premier League games.
The forum was also attended by Pui Kwan-kay, who is expected to become the next Hong Kong Football Association chairman at next week’s election; Steven Lo Kit-sing, president of Premier League club Pegasus and a former vice-chairman of the Hong Kong FA, Chan Chi-hong, one of the candidates of the HKFA board of directors and two players, Chan Siu-ki and Chan Wai-ho, a former Hong Kong team captain.
Luk said it was important to make soccer a “business” but Hong Kong has seen a lack of commercial sponsorship.
“It would be a big help to sports in general and soccer in particular if the commercial sector could get a tax exemption for sponsoring sports in Hong Kong,” said Luk at the forum held in a hotel in Wong Chuk Hang. “I have raised the subject to the Home Affairs panel of the LegCo and the government said they would study the possibility [of tax exemption] along with the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau.
“As a soccer fan, we are disappointed to see poor attendances at local games and we need to see more investment in the sport and more commercial sponsorship was one way to help arrest the decline in attendances.”
Attendances for the Hong Kong Premier League has been struggling for years, from an average of 1,048 in its inaugural 2014/15 season to only 936 at the just concluded season.
This is significantly lower than the target of 5,000 spectators per match when the HKFA first launched the Project Phoenix in 2011. As part of the scheme, the government provided annual subvention of HK$20 million, which was increased to HK$25 million in 2015 when the association implemented the Five-Year Strategic Plan to enhance administrative and technical capabilities in developing local soccer.
Chairman designate Pui said most of the government’s funding should not be allocated on individual Premier League clubs which relies heavily on commercial sponsorship.
“Public money should not go to individual clubs and that’s why commercial sponsorship is so important,” said Pui. “We need more support from the commercial sector and tax exemptions for their investment in sport should help.”
Steven Lo said one of the best ways to get fans flooding back was improving the Hong Kong representative team’s performance.
“When the Hong Kong team won the gold medal at the 2009 East Asian Games, there was big support from the fans,” said Lo. “The fans also came to support individual clubs such as South China and there was a full house in an AFC Cup tie the same year at Hong Kong Stadium.
“But two weeks ago, Hong Kong lost to Taiwan 2-0, a team we have easily beaten before. Of course the fans would not come to watch because of the poor standard.”
