Actually supposed to resemble two Chinese White Dolphins (HK famously has pink dolphins in their waters), they have often been mistaken for chicken, leading to the funny nickname of 大湾鸡 (Greater Bay Chicken).

Meanwhile, funding of niche programs is called out for not having a big enough market. And based on all the policy announcements, it appears that “mega events” have just been invented in 2024.

The more you dive deeper into the Tatler failure, the more hilarious it gets. Apparently they even attributed quotes to wrong players. Chan Shinichi, who is quoted here of having missed out the Messi game in 2014 due to leg injury, was born in 2002.

Essentially this also rendered the game meaningless from a sporting perspective: Inter Miami couldn’t practice against a cohesive team, no collective learning experience for a local side; probably another reason why the game wasn’t taken too seriously when compared to Vissel Kobe

I am not saying they shouldn’t have fielded a League XI. My issue is with how they were pushing for it to look like it is the HK Team (even down to the name and logo). Can’t imagine that @andersen_jrn was particularly happy about that as well

Among the 25 people in the squad, less than half held a HKSAR passport and would be eligible to play for Hong Kong. Just 6 of them were in the recent HKFA senior squad (Gerbig, Philip Chan, Yapp, Tse Ka-wing, Everton, Li Ngai-hoi)

In their ads, Tatler pushed the idea it would be indeed the representative team playing, when it was neither the A team nor the B team (which would take part in Guangdong-HK Cu). It should have been framed as what it is: A HKPL League XI, similar to other games in the past

There was long little enthusiasm from HKFA and the league about that game, knowing it would fall into a packed schedule. Clubs wouldn’t want their players get injured in an essentially meaningless exhibition game, and the HK team just finished an exhausting Asian Cup campaign.