Hong Kong Football Association To Introduce Stricter Financial Screening Of Club Backers

The Hong Kong FA "plans to introduce tougher measures to screen the financial background of individual club backers" when it establishes a new Premier League in September, according to Chan & Lo of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. The development comes after several football players from First Division side Happy Valley "were understood to have been arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption" for alleged match-fixing. HKFA CEO Mark Sutcliffe said that "more would be done to check the background of backers." Sutcliffe said, "In the new Premier League, we will be asking the clubs for clarity in terms of governance arrangements and financial transparency." HKFA Dir and Kitchee President Ken Ng Kin said that "they would launch a club licence system for teams that intend to join the Premier League." Ng: "There is no monitoring system in this area at the moment, but in future the clubs must prove they have clear financial arrangements before they can be granted a license for the new Premier League" (SCMP, 1/6).