Leading promoters are already plotting to bring more marquee football to Hong Kong after visits from English, Italian and Saudi clubs this summer. Nearly 100,000 fans watched Football Festival matches involving Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and AC Milan at Kai Tak Stadium last month, before last week’s three Saudi Super Cup games drew a combined…
The curtain came down on the first Hong Kong Football Festival on Thursday, with a game between bitter rivals Arsenal and Tottenham that made a mockery of its friendly status and left organisers basking in the glow of a job well done. By any metric, they would consider the past week to have been a…
Football Festival fever swept Hong Kong as Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur met in the event’s second and final match on Thursday. While the North London rivals prepared for their clash at Kai Tak Stadium, followers of the English Premier League clubs were in healthy competition off the pitch. Locally based and visiting supporters of both…
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said on Wednesday that the rapturous reception for his team at the Hong Kong Football Festival had given their new striker Viktor Gyokeres a “very good first impression” of the club. The Swede joined for an estimated US$74.2 million (HK$582 million) from Sporting Lisbon this week, as Arteta continued a spending…
Arsenal fans descended on Kai Tak Stadium on Wednesday for a first glimpse of their idols in the flesh at the Hong Kong Football Festival. The Gunners, who last played in Hong Kong 13 years ago, held a public training session at the 50,000-capacity Kowloon venue. Cheung Pak-ling, an Arsenal fanatic from the New Territories,…
Hong Kong could reap as much as HK$428 million (US$54.5 million) in economic benefits from the city’s eight-day football festival, experts have said, bringing about a windfall for sectors such as retail, hospitality and transport. One hotel sector representative said his firm expected a 12 per cent increase in room rates over the event period…
Hong Kong could reap as much as HK$428 million (US$54.5 million) in economic benefits from the city’s eight-day football festival, experts have said, bringing about a windfall for sectors such as retail, hospitality and transport. One hotel sector representative said his firm expected a 12 per cent increase in room rates over the event period…
Nearly 50,000 fans packed into Kai Tak Stadium on Saturday for the first game of the inaugural Hong Kong Football Festival, providing a raucous atmosphere and highlighting what the city’s leader had earlier called an energised tourism industry. And after days of community events, fan visits and anticipation, the real business got under way, with…
Nearly 50,000 fans packed into Kai Tak Stadium on Saturday for the first game of the inaugural Hong Kong Football Festival, providing a raucous atmosphere and highlighting what the city’s leader had earlier called an energised tourism industry. And after days of community events, fan visits and anticipation, the real business got under way, with…
So, here we are, it’s time for the business end of the Hong Kong Football Festival, the latest in an increasingly long line of mega-events driving an economic and tourism boom. On Saturday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu revealed there had been a 17 per cent jump in overseas visitors compared to the first six…