By Frederik Schipper
Hong Kong – February 2 – IJS-Global -The traditional Lunar New Year Cup football tournament held in Hong Kong stadium last week hasn’t been influenced by the financial crisis, an Hong Kong Football Association official said yesterday.
According to Kwan Yiu Lo, an official of the Hong Kong Football Association, one of the main aspects to decide if the financial crisis influenced the tournament is the number of spectators. Although the number of visitors for this years event was slightly lower than for last year’s edition, Lo doesn’t think that this has anything to do with the crisis. He argues, “The number of spectators might be a little bit lower than last year but that has other reasons than the financial crisis. The main reason could be that the participating teams were less well known than last year. And the difference in spectators is only around 10%.”
Moreover, once again according to Lo, it was even easier to find main sponsors for this year’s event than it was in the past few years. “That only shows that our tournament hasn’t been influenced at all by the ongoing financial crisis,” Lo claims. In the past few years, the tournament always had one main sponsor while there were several main sponsors this year. “Having several different main sponsors gives us more opportunities in different areas such as for example merchandising,” Lo adds.
The 2009 Lunar New Year Cup was held on January 26 and 29, the first and the fourth day of the Chinese New Year of the Ox. Participating teams in the tournament were Hong Kong League Selection, South China Pegasus, Sparta Prague and Suwon Bluewings. In the first round, the two local sides, Hong Kong League Selection and South China Pegasus, faced each other in the first game while the overseas competitors met in the second game. Both matches ended in draws and penalty-shootouts were necessary to decide which teams would proceed to the final. South China Pegasus got the better of the Hong Kong League Selection (5-4) while Sparta Prague defeated Suwon Bluewings 9-8.
On the second day of the tournament, the losers of the first day played each other in the third place match. The game ended goalless and once again penalty kicks were needed to bring a decision. Suwon Bluewings took these better and won the shoot-out 5-4. The final was between South China Pegasus and Sparta Prague. For the first time this tournament a game didn’t end in a draw, South China won 2-1 and became the winners of the 2009 Lunar New Year Cup.
