Hong Kong should stop spending millions of taxpayers’ money on football, says former coach

After taking over in December 2021, Andersen transformed a directionless Hong Kong team into a dynamic team that qualified for this year’s AFC Asian Cup final in Qatar.

Although he made Hong Kong football feel good on the surface, the former North Korea coach has been hamstrung by a faltering and poorly managed domestic scene, which attracts little interest from fans .

An average of 576 supporters watched local Premier League matches last season. The HKFA received HK$24.2 million (US$3.1 million) in government funds for the 2023-24 season, and Andersen believes this contributes to the lack of action from people like the HKFA President Eric Fok Kai-shan, among others.

“The government supports Hong Kong football with a lot of money,” Andersen told the Post. “It’s a big problem that the HKFA doesn’t make its own money. All the other associations sell out stadiums and have sponsors and big TV deals. That’s how they live, not on government funding.”

“In Hong Kong, we live off the government. We do nothing to get sponsorship deals, nothing to attract spectators to the stadiums and nothing to get good television contracts.”

Fok was elected unopposed 12 months ago to extend the 54-year family dynasty after father Timothy and grandfather Henry both served extended terms as chairman of the association.

Andersen said he “had a positive experience” with Eric Fok, while reiterating his dismay that the president stayed away from the Asian Cup final until the closing match in Hong Kong.

“He asked me a lot what we can improve,” Andersen said. “I gave him a lot of advice, so we’ll see what he can do for the HKFA.”

“I gave ideas to the people at the HKFA to become better and more professional. I think they listened to me, but sometimes they didn’t have the desire to do what I asked them.

“I enjoyed working with the people (in management positions). Whether they are the right people (for the jobs), I don’t want to comment. That’s for the HKFA to answer.

As well as looking for a replacement for Andersen, the governing body is also left without a CEO, following the dismissal of Joaquín Tam last month.

As an example of inadequate executive leadership, Andersen cited the Asian Cup qualifiers in India, during the coronavirus pandemic, in June 2022, when Hong Kong traveled without a doctor.

“I was the doctor, I had to decide who could play and who couldn’t,” he said. “If I picked a player and something (bad) happened, I was the cause. »

When he was in charge of the club, Andersen proposed many ideas to the city’s governing body and clubs to fix the failing structure of local football, but all fell on deaf ears.

He hopes, however, that the HKFA will heed its latest advice, which is to develop at least two new training centers, in addition to the 12-hectare site in Tseung Kwan O.

“We don’t have enough pitches to train young players, who are the future of Hong Kong football,” Andersen said. “Clubs also need better training facilities. Tai Po and Rangers train on poor quality artificial turf, so the quality of training is very poor.”

Andersen is also baffled by the fact that clubs have ignored his advice to train after sunset. “I was sweating like I was in a sauna when I watched the teams train,” he said. “If they train later, the players can work harder and longer.”

In Hong Kong’s first match after Andersen’s resignation, against Iran this month, fans unfurled a banner in tribute to their former boss and repeatedly chanted his name.

“The fans are fantastic,” Andersen said. “There are more than seven million people (in the city), if we can get them more interested in Hong Kong football, the city will develop. It is possible to sell out all Hong Kong matches at the new stadium (Kai Tak), attract more sponsors and better deals. »