The government is making efforts to facilitate a visit to Hong Kong by overseas football teams this summer, according to Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui revealed on a radio program on Tuesday.
“I am a football fan too, so I am working very hard to make that happen,” Law said.
She also expressed confidence that the Kai Tak Sports Park will be a popular venue, saying that every country or region always hopes to have famous performers to put on shows in their place, and it is a good thing to have a healthy competition.
Responding to an alleged ticketless entry into Saturday’s opening ceremony, the secretary said her bureau is working with the police to look into the incident.
Preliminary investigations showed that someone was sneaking visitors, who had no valid tickets, into the stadium.
However, Law stressed that such a violation was not prevalent on a large scale.
She vowed to proactively close any loopholes, saying the park may adopt technologies to strengthen its security systems. Possible measures include using facial recognition to verify the identity of backstage staff, or introducing real-name staff cards.
“Many stage crew often have an ‘all-access pass.’ If they hold such a pass, they can easily bring in people into the venue. For this, should we require a real-name registration, or facial recognition? [I think] this could be discussed with the organizers,” Law said.
This came after local media reported that a man allegedly snuck visitors past security and ticket checks into Kai Tak Stadium to watch the opening ceremony for HK$1,000 per person last Saturday, raising security concerns of the venue.
Lawmakers Adrian Pedro Ho King-hong and Steven Ho Chun-yin claimed that they had an unpleasant encounter on the night of the ceremony, after two Mandarin-speaking women occupied their seats in the VIP section.
Government officials, lawmakers, Kai Tak Sports Park officials and guests invited by sponsors were among those seated in the VIP section, and only those with VIP credentials can enter.
Recalling the incident, Adrian Ho said the two women refused to give the seats back to him and Steven Ho, who left their seats only for a short while. Suspecting that the women had no VIP credentials, Ho asked security personnel for assistance.
His suspicion turned out to be true, and the pair were asked to leave the seats.
However, Ho defended the security that night, saying it was already very strict. He suggested strengthening seat allocation to prevent people from taking advantage of the free-seating arrangement.
(Jamie Liu)
