{"id":41386,"date":"2025-08-03T22:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T22:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/41386\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T22:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T22:41:08","slug":"could-hong-kong-football-festival-rival-citys-rugby-sevens-as-its-crown-jewel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/41386\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Hong Kong Football Festival rival city\u2019s rugby sevens as its crown jewel?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As clubs and fans departed over the weekend following the Hong Kong Football Festival, the event\u2019s success raised the possibility of the city enjoying a repeat influx of visitors.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Organisers touted the festival\u2019s wider reach, with \u201can estimated 35 per cent coming from overseas to take in the football \u2013 and the sights\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Attendances reflected the appetite for Hong Kong hosting multiple English Premier League sides, eight years since it had last done so, with 160,000 watching two matches and four training sessions featuring Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, plus Italian giants AC Milan.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Ex-Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia was at his old club\u2019s game, after last year attending the Cathay\/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThis could be similar, with Hong Kong people having the experience of big football matches every year,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of the costumes, you go wearing the shirt of your favourite team, but it still feels like a big party.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard leads his team in thanking the Kai Tak Stadium crowd. Photo: Sam Tsang\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/301c1e08-4a0b-4945-84bc-88f5be75f60e_4d24e266.jpg\" title=\"Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard leads his team in thanking the Kai Tak Stadium crowd. Photo: Sam Tsang\"\/>Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard leads his team in thanking the Kai Tak Stadium crowd. Photo: Sam Tsang<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Players, managers and executives were united in their desire to do it again, while Rachael Carroll, managing director of the event\u2019s promoter TEG Sport, said Hong Kong\u2019s \u201cpassionate fans, world-class stadium and very supportive government\u201d made repeating the formula attractive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As clubs and fans departed over the weekend following the Hong Kong Football Festival, the event\u2019s success raised&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[18088,36457,3361,64,63,36446,36452,36449,36456,596,10340,36445,29478,36453,36447,36451,29477,1613,8316,36448,36459,36450,36455,36460,942,85,36458,29761,10988,36454],"class_list":["post-41386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-ac-milan","tag-al-nassr","tag-arsenal","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-latty","tag-cathay-hsbc-hong-kong-sevens","tag-cheung-pak-ling","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-football","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-events","tag-hong-kong-football-festival","tag-hong-kong-stadium","tag-john-sharkey","tag-kai-tak-mall","tag-kai-tak-stadium","tag-liverpool","tag-mikel-arteta","tag-national-games","tag-rachael-carroll","tag-sami-hyypia","tag-saudi-super-cup","tag-simon-wong-kit-lung","tag-singapore","tag-sports","tag-teg-sport","tag-thomas-frank","tag-tottenham-hotspur","tag-virgil-van-dijk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}