35 year old Tomas... he'll likely get 3 caps before never playing for HK again. Probably out of the HKPL in 2 years.
Tai Po's honorary chairman is lending the club over a million dollars so that they can resolve their problem with salary arrears. The club also announced that Michel Lugo (eligible for naturalization) and Ben van Meurs have left the club.
I guess they went mainly because of the $$$. You can't say it is unimportant because players have short careers, they need to make hay when they can. They easily earn 10 times more in China than in HK.
The Audit Commission released their semi annual report yesterday, tearing into the HKFA for not generating enough revenue, high turnover of staff, obfuscating attendance numbers, poor attendance record of board members and the fact that both the men's and women's are worse off today (ranking wise) than they were 10 years ago before Project Phoenix. You can read the executive summary here, the SCMP summary here and the full report here. Of note, the report vindicated Canny Leung who resigned in protest over the way Gary White was hired. The Audit Commission found that Mark Sutcliffe failed to disclose a conflict of interest by not being forthright his relationship with White. As a recap, Sutcliffe forwarded White's application to Human Resources 10 days after the deadline had passed. The report found that although Sutcliffe claimed that his application was received before the deadline, there was no proof that this was true. In fact, it was not unusual for the HKFA to accept applications after its own imposed deadlines, nor was it unusual for recruitment panel members to sign declarations of conflict of interest after they had interviewed a candidate with whom they had a conflict of interest.
Official: Yuen Long, Pegasus and Rangers pull out. The table will look like the one in Angsa's post once the season resumes.
https://news.mingpao.com/ins/體育/art...88244999492/【港超】傳亞協盃8月重啟兼精簡賽制-大埔或迎雙線作賽礙小將赴韓試訓 Ming Pao Daily reporst that the AFC Cup could resume in August, but Group I will consists of a single round of matches, not home and away. Kitchee's preliminary round match may also be a one match affair. I guess AFC will have to find neutral venues for all that. Wofoo Tai Po originally planned to send their youngsters to Korea for K3 training. But if AFC Cup resumes they might change their plan
Sutcliffe went through all that trouble to get White hired, in the end everything was for nothing since White left after 3 months and Sutcliffe himself left even earlier. I am concerned about the HKFA's poor governance. That really needs to be improved in every aspect.
I believe one of these youngsters Tai Po were aiming to send include Sun Ming-Him. On other news, it looks like R&F HK's Leung Nok Hang is set to join Meizhou Hakka, whilst Tsui Wang-Kit is set to go in the opposite direction by joining R&F HK.
Some will be confused by why Tsui is returning to the HKPL so soon at such a young age but let's not forget that's he's 23. There will be opportunities for him to return to CLO or the CSL if he plays well at R&F.
Japanese midfielder Shu Sasaki joins KC Southern from Hong Kong Pegasus. Remi Dujardin who has yet to be registered with Finnish club IFK and youngster Leung Yau Wai who is with Portuguese second division side Cova da Piedade returned to Hong Kong for training.
Dale Michael Tempest who is well knownduring his time with South China and Eastern in the 90's showed off his memorabilia of his national jersey shirt which was signed by former Brazilian star Pele who was a guest during Hong Kong's World Cup 1998 qualifying fixture against Thailand where the won 3-2. Tempest provided a set-up for Hong Kong's second goal which was scored by Ricky Cheng Siu-Chung. He also speaks about his other activities during his time in Hong Kong before he returned to the United Kingdom to work as a sports pundit for Sky Sports. In addition, there is speculation that Travis Major (formerly of KC Southern), Michel Lugo (formerly of Tai Po) and Kitchee midfielder Fernando Augusto Pedriera are in talks to join Eastern Long Lions. Lugo will be eligible for naturalisation in August whilst Fernando will be eligible in October.
And those 3 teams would be competitive too, no cap. How are they affording all this? Where is their source of money?
You see the sponsor logo on the front of their shirts? That's the answer to your question: Top East Holdings. They're a mainland firm that has assets in high-end real estate, industrial real estate, equity investment and financial services. You can read more about it here.
Kitchee said 5 of their highest paid players are refusing to accept a salary cut during this time when the HKPL is interrupted and the team is not practising or playing. They are likely to be let go I assume. If these players are not accepting inferior terms, that probably means they have better offers elsewhere.
I believe two out of the five players who are refusing to accept the salary cut are Fernando and Jared Lum who are both speculated to make moves to Eastern and R&F HK.
http://paper.wenweipo.com/2020/05/10/SP2005100011.htm HK Pegasus is looking to change its head coach from Peter Man to former Yuen Long and Tai Po coach Kwok Ka-Lok and Fan Chun-Yip.
https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/sport/20200513/bkn-20200513210432338-0513_00882_001.html Tsun Dai looks set to join Shenzhen FC after coach Donadoni decided to recruit him. As Tianjin is disbanded, Shenzhen FC will likely be invited to stay in the CSL, thus Tsun Dai will become a CSL player. Tsun Dai could also be called up to the Chinese national team. But he will likely have to give up his British passport as China forbids dual nationality.
Zesh Rehman is the new head coach of Southern. The club said that he will decide whether to retire as a player or continue on as a player-coach at the later date.
http://paper.wenweipo.com/2020/05/16/SP2005160012.htm A few media outlets saw AFC publish the AFC Cup schedule on its website and then deleted it. The schedule said Kitchee will play the winner between Ulan Baatar FC and Taipower on 21 October. Then the Group I matches will be played from 29 Oct to 4 Nov, probably at a neutral venue. The 4 clubs will play each other only once. East Asia zone semi-finals will be played on 24-25 Nov and 1-2 Dec. AFC Cup Final will be played on 12 Dec.
FIFA are quite strict about this. You need to have a passport from the territory of the relevant Association. Same reason why players like Wang Zhengpeng and Li Haiqiang couldn't represent us right away. In addition, if he doesn't have a parent or grandparent who was born in the mainland, he, himself, must reside in the mainland for two years before he can represent China. Won't affect his status in the CSL, of course, as he already counts as local player.
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/sports-49630806 The examples you quote are those who don't have HKSAR passports. They just waited two years/seasons. I think Tsun Dai just need to wait two years for the full team. But in the mean time he can represent the China Olympic/U23 team.