In the early hours of tomorrow morning, Hong Kong time, millions of football fans from all over the world will be focusing their eyes on the Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, where two of the most established football clubs in Europe, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich will battle it out to become new European champions.
Thanks to some sound marketing strategies by Europe's football governing body UEFA over the years, the prestigious Champions League has become one of the most eagerly followed sporting events in the world, attracting some 100 million global TV viewers a year. Only the US Super Bowl attracts a similar-sized audience, and the majority of those are domestic viewers.
The Champions League also brings in lucrative revenues for those involved, with each participating Club receiving five million Euros for reaching the group stage. Add to that gate receipts, TV revenues and other prize money, and the eventual winning teams can reap tens of millions of euros in a single season, a staggering figure.
However, football is not always driven by monetary rewards. Sometimes it's also about pride, especially when it comes to international level.
Football has long been one of the most popular sports here in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong team made us all feel proud last December when they made history by taking the gold medal in the East Asian Games. This unprecedented success has sparked many public calls to rejuvenate the sport in Hong Kong. A wide-ranging consultancy study on Hong Kong's football development was conducted in mid-2009, and its findings were announced in March which contained a number of valuable suggestions on how the local game could be revived.
I know that football once enjoyed golden times in Hong Kong with league matches attracting crowds of many thousands, but in recent years both attendances and the standards of the game have declined drastically. Many critics say the sport is now at crossroads, with fundamental changes to its governance structure now needed. I would agree with that, and I believe that the recommendations in the report offer a unique chance for Hong Kong football to move forward once again. Only by introducing elements like a professional management structure, top-class training facilities and a comprehensive youth football training mechanism can the sustainable and long-term development of the sport be assured.
As you may know, the establishment of a Football Academy at Tseung Kwan O has been proposed for several years now, and the Club has been approached to help fund it. I hope that following publication of the Government study, the Hong Kong Football Association can come up with a detailed proposal for setting up and running the Football Academy on a sustainable basis. We can then discuss how best to offer our support and get this project rolling.
Anyway, let’s get back to tonight's exciting match. I think it will be a mouthwatering clash as Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho once worked under his Munich counterpart Louis van Gaal at Barcelona. Both of them have won the Champions League before, Mourinho with Porto in 2004 and van Gaal with Ajax in 1995. Both teams are also bidding to complete a league, domestic cup and European Cup treble tonight.
Personally, I would like to show respect to Inter but my heart is with Bayern Munich. Even I’m not a Bayern Fan, but they have a fantastic youth development programme and some of the young players like Thomas Muller and Holger Badstuder, have made it in to the first team this season. Adding to other star players like Arjen Robben and Ivica Olic, they have great credential to challenge Inter tonight and I hope they can bring the trophy back to Germany for the first time since 2001.
Although I'm sure you will want to stay up late and watch the match, please don’t forget we still have a full programme of 10 races at Sha Tin later tomorrow, including the feature race – the Group 3 Sha Tin Vase. The weather was a bit unstable recently as our night meeting on Wednesday was affected by torrential rain, followed by sunny intervals on Thursday and Friday. With the Observatory forecast heavy rain affecting Hong Kong tomorrow, it’s better for you to closely monitor the weather condition and the track condition, which may favour horses with form on soft going.
Some 14 runners will be contesting this third last pattern race of the current season. I know some of our racing fans will be watching how Sweet Sanette performs when this four-year-old filly competes in a Group event for the first time in Hong Kong.
As Hong Kong does not have its own horse breeding industry, it’s less common for Owners and trainers to import fillies or mares to run in Hong Kong. Performers at group level are even rarer. But I’m glad to see Sweet Sanette giving consistent performances this season, having racked up three victories up to now. Should she win this race, she will become the first local-based filly to win a group event in six years, following Elegant Fashion’s victory in the Group 2 Chairman’s Trophy in March 2004. Sweet Sanette has won on soft ground at 1000m but I am sceptical if she can handle 1200m in Sha Tin on a soft going. Anyway, let’s see if she can recreate history in this sprint event.
Personally, I will be looking forward to see a good performance from Nightlign and One World as both should be able to handle the soft ground. Amigo has on paper a good chance but has no proven record on rain-affected track. So let’s see if he can deliver his great turn of foot if the track is affected tomorrow.
In the ATV Cup I will be paying special attention to Sunny King, Tuscan Spirit and Fleet Command which all have performed well at least on yielding ground. In the meantime, I am optimistic about the performance of Young Elite which works very well in the trackwork and Mark Richards, manager of the Racing Club, also told me that the five-year-old should be able to handle the soft ground.
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