The place is absolutely nuts, very busy and extremely advanced. But this is not a travel blog, this is a football blog; so with true journalistic integrity I have been secretly taking notes over the time here. The intention is to form my thoughts into something cogent and readable even after 4 days of sleep deprivation and drinking with Chinese Brian.
The topic that has given me cause to ponder is that of the presence of English football over here. It's unavoidable whether on billboards, TV advertising or just the shirts worn by the swarms of people everywhere; no doubt the English Premier League (along with Real Madrid and in particular Barcelona) is big business over here.
I've been conducting a little tally in my head every time I clock an English club shirt, and the results are very much what you might expect but therein lies an intriguing situation. Leading the way are Manchester United and Liverpool. This is probably as would be expected due to global reach and domination of the past 2 decades for one, and the historical significance of the other. Next comes Barcelona, miles ahead of El Classico rivals Madrid. Everyone loves a bit of Leo though don't they, whether in Kowloon or Kathmandu the bloke is God. Or Buddha.
The other two English teams to crop up on a fairly frequent basis have been Arsenal and Chelsea. Again as expected due to their successes over the past 5-10-15 years. I've also seen Everton, Aston Villa, and even spotted Sheffield United and a few Glasgow Celtic shirts.
But here's the thing.
The team that has spent more money than anyone in England, the team which pays higher wages than any of their rivals, the team which has ambitious designs on becoming top dog in world football; they are nowhere to be seen.
Manchester City do not exist here in Hong Kong.
Any mention of Manchester will invariably relate to United, and people simply don't seem to care about City. They are second in the league, recently beat Chelsea, have Carlos Tevez, and yet they are no-one.
This has to be a situation that City address. Without doubt they are big news in Abu Dhabi (the slogan 'Our Country, Our City' is plastered alongside mugshots of Carlitos and friends all over AD) but to really match the big guns in England they need to be popular all over the world.
Even if they win the league and Liverpool finish in 15th, City will not be anywhere near the status of the Reds. The way the game is these days, the business side of a club and in particular marketing the 'brand' as far and wide as possible is essential - to ensure the revenue to fund the exorbitant costs. Admittedly, City are in a unique financial position in that their owners have more money than they could ever spend, but if they ignore the global marketing side of things, they will never truly be the biggest. You can't buy everything.
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The next time this blog is updated will be from my new home in Australia, where as a Melbourne Heart fan I could not be arriving at a better time. Yesterday, in the first ever Melbourne Derby and easily the biggest game of their young history, the Heart beat Melbourne Victory to earn bragging rights and more importantly a good deal of attention and respect. I'm hoping to go and watch them play as soon as I can so will report first hand on our heroes. Keep reading!
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