Mark Tan Chun-Lok has moved up to Guangzhou R&F (CSL club) from R&F FC (HKPL club) and might be making his debut for the club in CSL soon. That means he will also likely play in the Guangzhou R&F vs Southampton FC exhibition match in Macau on 24 July.
https://www.scmp.com/sport/hong-kon...s-out-governments-apathy-towards-its-own-2002 Tai Po's Chan Ping is asking HK govt to provide more subsidies for the HKPL champions as well as other fellow district clubs. They are only getting HK$1.5 million per season which is less than 1/10th of their budget for 2018-19 season.
Taiwanese international Chen Hao-Wei who is most notably known for netting two goals against the Hong Kong National Team last month, joins Eastern Long Lions: https://sports.ettoday.net/news/148...4d7KK0UFA25V7uQsUyRvo1j8JuGvEH5LFRRwamI2qccMM
https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/sport/20190710/bkn-20190710070050086-0710_00882_001.html Peter Man Pei-Tak will take charge of Hong Kong Pegasus as its head coach. The club has gone through quite a big change in the summer. Travis Major and Jack Sealy have left. But Sasaki Sho will stay. Marcos from Southern District has joined as well as a bunch of young players from Yuen Long FC. A foreigner right winger will join the club soon.
Their eighth head coach in four years. With the recent departure of Kenneth Kwok from the HKFA, one wonders if he could be Pegasus' next head coach if Man fails to get Pegasus to a hot start. We know that Kwok will receive his Pro license in November and is unlikely to take a job before then, but afterwards...
Tsun Dai has left Oxford United to join EPL club Wolverhampton Wanderers FC'. He will play in the U23 side first.
Happy Valley signed Pakistani Jahangir Khan. He does have HK ID card but no HK SAR passport yet. He will therefore be registered as an Asian foreigner until he acquires his HK SAR passport.
Bad news for Dreams FC: Dreams failed to reach an agreement with their sponsors and decided to relegate to 1st Division. The HKFA will decide on July 15th if they would invite another team up (e.g. Rangers) #hkfootball #HKPL— Football in Hong Kong (@offsideHK) July 11, 2019
https://sports.now.com/home/news/details?id=26170257859 Dreams FC will relegate itself. Rangers are expected to take their place if HKFA wants to keep 10 clubs in HKPL.
This is the reason why I favour a franchise system like the MLS, with regular season and play-offs. 10 clubs will play each other as per normal league, then the top 8 clubs will go into the play-offs. All clubs must submit a business plan with some sort of financial guarantee, then they will sign a contract with HKPL, guaranteeing their participation for 3 years. Any club who wants to take part within this 3 years period, they must takeover one of the franchises, that means buying them out. That means clubs are guaranteed their places in HKPL for 3 years and they will be more willing to invest and a little easier for them to attract sponsors as well as players. The regular and play-off system also means the competition among the bottom 3-4 clubs will continue throughout the season, unless the bottom two are too far behind. Anyway, the relegation of Dreams FC might mean the return of South China, who are supposed to have been approached by potential sponsors? If they act now and recruit the Dreams FC players, especially captain Chan Wai-Ho, add their own First Division players, they might be able to get a reasonable squad together. But I guess it is already too late for that.
It will almost assuredly be Rangers. Philip Lee claims to have received an official invitation from the HKFA, and if there are no outstanding issues, they will sign Poon Pak On and Peng Lin Lin from Dreams.
I think Rangers applied to be promoted to HKPL but are still waiting for today's HKFA board meeting before receiving an official invitation/confirmation. Anyway either Dreams FC or Rangers, they make no difference to me. Neither are title contenders and both say they want to train young players.
Brian Fok has signed with Kitchee and he will wear no. 15. He is a central defender and is a Hong Kong/Nigeria mix blood, therefore he is eligible as a local player.
It's good that he has come back to HK, perhaps now we will have a chance of making the national team. No idea what he was up to overseas as it seemed like he was stalling!
Pui Kwan-Kay (HKFA chairman) said they have sent an official invitation to Biu Chun Rangers to compete in HKPL next season, but Philip Lee said he wants HKPL to cease promotion/relegation for 3 seasons. Pui Kwan-Kay said HKPL is not prepared to accept this condition so they might invite Wing Yee, which finished 4th in HK First Division last season. As I said, HKPL is not suitable for promotion/relegation system. Because the clubs need to protect their or their sponsors' investments. I hope HKFA and the clubs wake up to this fact soon.
https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/sport/20190715/bkn-20190715120510863-0715_00882_001.html Happy Valley officially opened training camp today. Notes: - Their expected budget is around $10 million - They have four foreigners confirmed and currently have have three foreigners on trial - Due to the pecking order, the only home grounds that they choose from right now are Tuen Muen Tang Shiu Kin Sports Ground and Siu Sai Wan. However, they hope that either Sham Shiu Po or Hammerhill Road falls into their lap as they would prefer a stadium that is closer to the city centre - The plans have changed on the training ground front. Instead of building their own ground in Nansha, they are now exploring the possibility of sharing the four pitches owned by Zhao Dayu Soccer School. - Pao Ka Yiu is the new head coach of the club. Sham Kwok Pui will new be an assistant.
They've given Rangers a week to respond but I suspect that even if they decline, an invitation will be extended to Hoi King instead as they were the only other club who applied. I used to think along the same lines but I no longer think suspending pro/rel will solve this problem. Sponsors don't want to commit for a more than a year at at time - full stop. Over the years, we've seen Metro Gallery, South China and Dreams all self-relegate even when they were well clear of relegation. We've also seen Sun Hei and Wong Tai Sin both decline promotion. This evidence seems to suggest that running a professional club is expensive and thus, higher sponsorship premiums will be charged. But there's also another big reason why sponsors don't want to commit long term - no one watches Hong Kong football. It's equally humorous and sad to see that average attendance has actually gone down since the HKPL was formed. Last year, the attendance was less than 1,000 per match, well short of the 5,000 we were promised with Project Phoenix. At the same time, matches are broadcasted exclusively online, if broadcasted at all. Perhaps it is impossible for HKPL clubs to afford airtime on TVB, but when you can't even get on Viu or RTHK, then you have a serious problem with viewership. Along with suspending pro/rel, I've also heard many in the football community talk about legalizing betting local football and giving tax exemptions to companies that sponsor sports. Both of these are good ideas but you need more people, beyond gamblers and commercial interests to watch your product. How do you convince potential sponsors that there will be any return on investment if most people don't even know where they can watch the games? Suspending pro/rel will not fix the problem of viewership, however, I do support this idea for one reason - so that we can stop pretending as if it's based on merit.
https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/sport/20190716/00286_002.html It appears that Philip Lee requested no relegation FOR 3 seasons for Biu Chun Rangers ONLY. Wow, that is cheeky. If I were HKFA then I would definitely NOT allow this to happen. It has to be no relegation for all or promotion/relegation stays. One thing HKFA REALLY need to fix apart from the marketing side, it is the refereeing problem. A lot of times people, including players, coaches and spectators are just very upset by the HK referees' decisions. It could be a real turn off sometimes and they must find a solution.
Eastern Longlions FC and Hong Kong international striker, 32 years-old Jaime McKee surprisingly announced his retirement on social media. "After over a decade of playing professional football in Hong Kong, I’ve decided it’s time to retire. I’ve had so many unbelievable memories and I want to thank everyone who’s been involved in creating them, thank you!"
That is quite a surprise and I didn't expect McKee to announce his retirement so soon. Either ways, I would still want to thank him for his contribution within Hong Kong football and wish him all the best within the future.
That is extremely surprising. At 32 he still has a couple of years to go at least, his speed was still top notch as seen in the latest HK match. But having said all that, his retirement will open up the forward spot of the HK team and finally allow some youngsters to come up.
They'll miss his pace and his experience for sure. However, things look bright for Eastern. They've unveiled their squad this morning and it looks as though they've acquired everyone who was a starter last year at Tai Po, minus Sandro and Sartori.
They must loan a good chunk of players out soon? Looks like they have over 30 first team squad members as of now...
If you didn't know better then you would thought they were playing in an Asian competition as well, with so many players signed. Wong Wai is a glaring exception. There is strong rumour that he will move to the Chinese Jia League.