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“Don’t get me started on financial fair play,” Vincent Kompany said, immediately after his Bayern Munich team had beaten Aston Villa in a pre-season friendly at Kai Tak Stadium last month. The same billionaire-owned Aston Villa that in May won the Europa League; that is competing in this season’s Champions League, yet was forced to sell a host of A-list stars over the summer to comply with financial regulations. As Bayern head coach, Kompany hugely benefits from the spending restrictions that...

Hong Kong’s athletes were sent to the Asian Games in Japan this month with the demand they “achieve even greater success, bringing more glory to the country and Hong Kong” and the weight of a city’s considerable expectations on their shoulders. In this instance, greater success is surpassing the record 53 medals won in Hangzhou three years ago, although the message might also have been “look at how much money we give you, don’t disappoint us”. Whether the 580 sportsmen and women tasked with...

Hong Kong’s men got their track cycling campaign off to a strong start on Tuesday, winning bronze in the team sprint, while the city’s squash players continued to march through their respective team events. China, meanwhile, took gold in the sprint in a Games record time of 42.152 seconds at Izu Velodrome, consigning Japan to silver. The hosts finished in 42.511. There was victory too for China’s women, who set an Asian record of 45.370 in beating Malaysia to team sprint gold. Chinese Taipei...

Former China table tennis player Cheng Jingqi has warned that toxic online scrutiny is affecting Wang Chuqin and damaging the team, with the world No 1 admitting he is “losing the feeling of loving the court”. Wang lost 4-0 to 21-year-old compatriot Lin Shidong in the men’s singles table tennis final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Monday, with news of the defeat attracting over 6,000 comments and 18,000 likes on Chinese social media within two minutes. The comment section of the post...

As the dust settles on their intense and increasingly fraught home WXV Challenger campaign, Hong Kong have begun absorbing the salutary lessons they received over what it will take to fulfil their goal of becoming “a force on the world stage”. After beginning with a gutsy, if slightly fortunate, win over Brazil, the city team were flattened by eventual champions Fiji in their second match. Favourites going into their closing fixture on Saturday against Samoa, they trailed from the second minute...

The envy of other athletes, swimmers typically wrap up their major Games galas early and start letting their hair down while everyone else is still in monastic competition mode. Contrast their hedonistic lot with the rugby 7s players at this Asian Games: “on edge, practising and a bit nervous”, according to Chloe Chan, as they impatiently wait to join the party on Thursday. “But it’s good to be nervous going into a tournament; it means you care, right?” the Hong Kong captain said. Had the chips...

Squash may have secured its long-awaited Olympic debut at the 2028 Los ⁠Angeles Games, but the chief of ⁠the sport’s global governing body is acutely aware ⁠of budget and venue squeezes and is not taking a spot at the Brisbane 2032 Olympics in Australia for granted. While World Squash is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to retain its Olympic spot, banking on the game’s expanding global footprint and plug-and-play sustainability, its president Zena Wooldridge took a pragmatic view of...

The Jockey Club is investigating reasons for declining local turnover to start the new season, which chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges labelled a concern. Local wagering on Sunday’s 11-race card at Sha Tin dropped 11.5 per cent on last year to HK$1.359 billion – the fifth time local turnover was down from six meetings so far this term. While field sizes tend to be an issue this early in the season, with some trainers holding back their horses because of the hot weather, the decline in...

There have been times over the past week or so when you were left with the impression that Japan is holding the Asian Games only because everyone was too polite to say no several years ago. The rather haphazard nature of the organisation, and the tens of thousands of empty seats in venues around the Aichi-Nagoya region, is not indicative of a place that has wholeheartedly embraced its role as host to a sporting event that, in terms of competitor numbers at least, is bigger than the...

The first month of the new season is in the books and it was business as usual for Ka Ying Rising and Zac Purton, while an apprentice and host of local trainers also made successful starts to their campaigns. The SCMP analyses the jockeys and trainers who had a month to remember or one to forget, as well as the most outstanding victory and winning ride. Who’s hot? Purton launched his bid for a 10th championship in fine style, firing in 11 wins at a healthy strike rate of 22.9 per cent for...

Hong Kong’s athletes extended their medal run to nine straight days at the Asian Games with bronze in esports and table tennis on Monday, pushing the overall tally to 34. China, meanwhile, continued a remarkable record in the diving, with two more golds, in women’s 1m springboard and men’s 1m springboard, extending an unbeaten streak stretching back to 1974. In that time, 94 titles have been up for grabs, and the country’s divers have taken them all. With six events remaining between now and...

A “more relaxed and less stressed” Ceci Lee Sze-wing will face the challenge of overcoming two-time reigning champion and hometown favourite Yumi Kajihara in her hunt for a potentially career-shaping Asian Games gold. Lee will link up with Chloe Leung Wing-yee in the Madison on Thursday, but it is in the following day’s omnium, which head coach Herve Dagorne labelled “the queen event”, that the 25-year-old could establish herself as the continent’s most complete track cyclist. She has sacrificed...