Hong Kong Football Association chairman Brian Leung Hung-tak appealed to local authorities to relax betting rules and allow more top-quality matches into the market. This could boost the game in the country with English Premier League clubs in Hong Kong for its pre-season Asia Cup.

Leung’s call for new rules is driven by the potential financial benefits of allowing local betting on games between overseas teams in the city. This in itself would be controversial as staging games for betting purposes only would open the sport, already fighting a battle against match-fixers, to more ethical questions and potential corruption.

In Hong Kong all legal gambling is conducted through the non-profit Hong Kong Jockey Club and betting on local competitions is banned. Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Leung appealed for betting rules to be relaxed.

“There will definitely be huge interest in betting on these matches and I have spoken to the Jockey Club. Their initial response is quite positive as they can give us a very high percentage of the profit to help lower the cost of staging these matches. But since their existing operations do not allow betting on local competitions, it may require a change of the betting rules.”

The visit of the Premier League clubs for the Asian Cup this year has caused controversy. Nearly 36,000 fans braved torrential rain on Wednesday, to watch games between Tottenham and Sunderland and Manchester City and South China.

After heated debate between tournament organisers and the clubs’ officials, it was eventually decided both games would be played after a 30 minute delay and with only 40-minute halves. Unsurprisingly Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen was injured after jumping for a header and damaging his ankle as he landed. This lead to remarks from Tottenham manager that the game should never have been played.

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