OVERHAUL URGED TO FOCUS MORE ON YOUTH
Architects of Rangers’ Sapling Cup success say game in the city cannot improve without key development and also a boost in sponsorship
Two of the chief architects of BC Rangers’ Sapling Cup success have underlined the urgent need for an overhaul of the youth development in Hong Kong.
Rangers heaped more misery on embattled Kitchee in the final of a competition designed to provide playing chances for emerging talent.
It was a “bittersweet” day for Philip Lee Fai-lap, the club’s owner. The silverware ended Rangers’ 29-year drought, but Lee announced immediately after Wednesday’s match that he was stepping down as a club director, because “the burden is too big, and I am an old man”.
The 74-year-old said he was “wasting money every season”, with the local game struggling to command interest from fans and sponsors.
“There is more focus on developing young players in most football countries, and without this there will be no improvement in Hong Kong,” Lee added.
The Sapling Cup final brought down the curtain on the 22-year career of Rangers captain Lam Ka-wai. A former Kitchee player, Lam was joined in midfield by Hong Kong squad man Lam Hinting, 24, and 18-year-old Sergio Chiu Ching-yu, who was deservedly voted the Sapling Cup’s best under-22 performer.
The 38-year-old Lam, nevertheless, said young, local footballers were content to be wrapped in straitjackets by their coaches.
“The level of [local] players is not too different from when I started [in 2002], but they need to improve their speed and physicality, and have more confidence in themselves,” Lam said.
“We have a lot of foreigners in the league and the local players need to work harder [to compete for places]. It is down to them to get better. Sometimes their coach controls them. They need to be braver and more creative, and do more overall.”
Lam will sit out Rangers’ closing league game, against HKFC tomorrow, to protect his “dream” farewell. He intends to accelerate the coaching he has begun in the club’s academy, and says football is a viable career for youngsters in Hong Kong.
“If they are given the chance, I would advise them to do it, but the only way to have a good career is to give everything to football,” Lam said.
The 3,769-strong crowd inside Mong Kok Stadium to watch Rangers’ 1-0 victory contrasted sharply with regular three-figure league attendances. Attracting more fans, however, is dependent on “improving the quality of football”, according to Lam, who was capped 51 times by Hong Kong.
“It is not easy [to achieve improvement],” he said. “The sponsors are not there, and we do not have the money ... like [on the mainland] and Thailand. Most clubs do not own their training pitches.”
Among seven strategic goals featured in the local FA’s Vision 2025 is “The Hong Kong 2034 Project”, which targets qualification for the 2034 Fifa World Cup finals. It recognises players born between 2004 and 2014 would form the bedrock of a successful 2034 team.
John Morling, the FA’s recently appointed technical director, has urgently been seeking a solution for the gap between youth and senior football, and targeted a development programme that delivers a “conveyor belt of players, year after year”.
Lee, who has been in charge of Rangers since 1988, lamented that “no supporters come to watch the games”.
“Every season, we are wasting money. I spend around HK$7 million every year, but there is no income,” Lee said. “We cannot find many good sponsors for the game. I hope the FA can attract more, but for so many years they have not been able to find the [financial] support to help our Premier League.”
[If no focus on developing young players] there will be no improvement in Hong Kong PHILIP LEE, BC RANGERS CHIEF