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37-697: The first football club of Hong Kong is Hong Kong Football Club , usually known as "The Club", founded in 1886. The club is one of the oldest existing football clubs in Asia. The first football competition of Hong Kong is the Challenge Shield , which founded in 1898. Its format is similar to the FA Challenge Cup in England. Tracing back to early 20th century, the Hong Kong football league

74-608: A football club (or association football club , alternatively soccer club ) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as an independent unit or as part of a larger sports organization as a subsidiary of the parent club or organization. The sport of association football allows teams that partake in some sort of club activity to participate in tournaments such as leagues and other competitions. Teams must register their players as well as staff and other personnel to be eligible to represent

111-484: A (professional) football club is incorporation . A football club is an entity which is formed and governed by a committee and has members which may consist of supporters in addition to players. A consequence of the FIFA rules and regulations for association football clubs is that players are not allowed to be owned by any legal entity other than the clubs themselves. This means that the involvement of external investors in

148-644: A business, city or district. Clubs often are the sole event organisers of their home games. Stadium naming rights are sometimes procured by sponsors to generate additional sources of revenue for the football club. Normally this requires the club (or its owners) to have sole ownership of the stadium of which naming rights are sold. An association football club exists as a business entity. The club signs commercial contract with players as well as non-playing personnel. As any business entity it has its own secretary or secretarial department as well as financial, legal, accounting and other departments. The club also often has

185-476: A club is and is not allowed to do with their spending and capital holdings. The capital structure of a football club most closely resembles that of a nonprofit corporation , although it may still be profitable per se to its investors. A practical example is the fact that clubs may deliberately price matchday tickets below market value , instead favouring a higher stadium attendance or membership priority access over total matchday revenues. Another notable example

222-440: A combination of their own youth academies, as well as external sources of talent (pools) through affiliated clubs as well as the arrangement of youth tournaments. An association football club normally has a designated stadium as their home ground, where the club plays its home games, which normally make up about half of fixtures for a given season. The home ground can either be owned by the club itself or by some other entity such as

259-491: A department or someone who popularizes it or interacts with public on behalf of the club (public affair). The club may also contain own agronomist or whole agricultural department. An association football club often times provides some medical support in forms of first or urgent medical aid and physical rehabilitation or recovery plans for its players. Sports club A sports club or sporting club , sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association ,

296-429: A larger multisports club are examples of this (namely, Portuguese SADs ( Sociedade Anónima Desportiva ) such as Sport Lisboa e Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal , or Spanish SADs ( Sociedad Anónima Deportiva ) Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. and Real Betis Balompié S.A.D. , as well as Italian clubs like Società Sportiva Lazio S.p.A. ). Some sports teams are owned and financed by a single non-sports company , for example

333-447: A national level within each national member association. The majority of association football clubs take part in a league system . These league systems are governed on a continental level by the six regional FIFA confederations. Football clubs exist all over the world on amateur, semi-professional or professional levels of the game. They can be owned by members as well as business entities. Football clubs have been in practice since

370-521: A player on one sports team within a sports and entertainment company to automatically play for another team in the same company. On the other hand, American varsity teams are generally organized into a structure forming a true multi-sport club belonging to an educational institution, but varsity collegiate athletics are almost never referred to as clubs; "club sports" in American colleges and universities refer to sports that are not directly sponsored by

407-422: A presence within a certain geographic area where football is a natural part of the culture. Football clubs may also expand their area of reach further from the local region of origin to whom they belong. Many association football clubs will have either one or more youth systems connected to the organization, either as part of the club, or as an affiliate to the club. The more prestigious football clubs often have

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444-901: A single sport or to several ( multi-sport clubs ). The term "athletics club" is sometimes used for a general sports club, rather than one dedicated to athletics proper. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn 's Turners movement, first realized at Volkspark Hasenheide in Berlin in 1811, was the origin of the modern sports clubs . Larger sports clubs are characterized by having professional and amateur departments in various sports such as bike polo , football , basketball , futsal , cricket , volleyball , handball , rink hockey , bowling , water polo , rugby , track and field athletics , boxing , baseball , cycling , tennis , rowing , gymnastics , and others, including less traditional sports such as airsoft , billiards , e-sports , orienteering , paintball , or roller derby . The teams and athletes belonging to

481-719: A single sport. There are some exceptions, especially when multiple such teams are under one ownership structure, in which case the club may be referred to as a "sports and entertainment" company; see, for example, the One Buffalo sports club, which fields an NFL team (the Buffalo Bills ), two hockey teams ( Buffalo Sabres and Rochester Americans ), professional lacrosse ( Buffalo Bandits and Rochester Knighthawks ), and general athletics and fitness (Impact Sports and Performance). Even in such circumstances, collective bargaining agreements and contract laws generally do not allow

518-421: A sports club may compete in several different leagues, championships and tournaments wearing the same club colors and using the same club name, sharing also the same club fan base , supporters and facilities. Many professional sports clubs have an associate system where the affiliated supporters pay an annuity fee. In those cases, supporters become eligible to attend the club's home matches and exhibitions across

555-448: Is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports . Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and may play other similar clubs on occasion, watched mostly by family and friends, to large commercial organisations with professional players which have teams that regularly compete against those of other clubs and sometimes attract very large crowds of paying spectators . Clubs may be dedicated to

592-1441: Is also a multisports organisation, with badminton , cricket, association football and tennis facilities. In addition, like in several other countries, many universities and colleges develop a wide range of student sport activities including at a professional or semi-professional level. Fulham F.C. once ran a professional rugby league team and rowing club, which other football clubs have emulated since. Many football clubs originate from cricket teams. Today, most major cities have separate clubs for each sport (e.g. Manchester United Football Club and Lancashire County Cricket Club are based in Manchester ). Many clubs internationally describe themselves as football clubs ("FC", "Football Club" in British English and "Fußball-Club" in German; "CF", Clube de Futebol in Portuguese and Club de Fútbol in Spanish). Generally, British football clubs field only football teams. Their counterparts in several other countries tend to be full multi-sport clubs, even when called football clubs ( Futebol Clube do Porto ; Fußball-Club Bayern München ; Futbol Club Barcelona ). The equivalent abbreviation "SC" (for "Soccer Club")

629-415: Is more common in the case of individual sports, such as the sport of athletics , where a distance runner may compete for a track and field team as well as a road running team, and also have further membership at a local sports club for training purposes. Some national sports bodies require an athlete to state a priority order of their club membership, outlining which club has the higher, or first, claim on

666-493: Is the owner of the Cardiff Arms Park site. It is responsible for much of the premier amateur sporting activities in city with cricket ( Cardiff Cricket Club ), rugby union (it is the major shareholder of the semi-professional Cardiff Rugby Club ), field hockey ( Cardiff & Met Hockey Club ), tennis ( Lisvane (CAC) Tennis Club ) and bowls ( Cardiff Athletic Bowls Club ) sections. Catford Wanderers Sports Club

703-442: Is the prevalence of community initiatives by professional football clubs. The English Premier League is wholly owned by its 20 participating member clubs. Professional football clubs also act as market entities offering a highly sought after product to an entertainment sector audience. It therefor acts as a market intermediator between its product (the football players) and its market (the supporters). In doing so, it fills

740-667: The Third Division (D3 League). Most of the teams in the lower divisions are amateur with the occasional semi-professional team. The bottom team of the Third Division League are eliminated from the league system. Disaffiliation All the cup competitions are also organized by the HKFA. Among them, the HKFA Cup and Senior Shield are probably the oldest professional football competitions in Asia - even earlier than

777-610: The United States major institutions like The New York Athletic Club and Los Angeles Athletic Club serve as athletic clubs that participate in multiple sports. Examples also abound of sports clubs that are in effect one sports team. Each team from the NFL (American football), CFL (Canadian football), NBA (basketball), MLB (baseball), NHL (ice hockey) or MLS (association football) North American sports leagues , can be called sports clubs, but in practice, they focus solely on

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814-583: The 1,000th goal in Asian Cup history in the team’s return to the competition’s finals for the first time since 1968, despite the team losing 3-1 to the United Arab Emirates . The Hong Kong women's national football team qualified for 14 consecutive AFC Women's Asian Cups between 1975 and 2003. However, the team has not qualified for a major tournament since the 2003 AFC Women's Championship . Football club In association football,

851-475: The 19th century, with the existence of clubs dating back to the 1850s . During the early 1860s, there were increasing attempts in England to unify and reconcile the various football games that were played in the public schools as well in the industrial north under the Sheffield Rules. Working class, industrial cities all over the U.K. began forming their own Football Associations in the late 1800s, from

888-623: The Scottish Football Association in 1873 to Lancashire FA in 1878. Teams still in existence began popping up, some with the help of the Church; for example, Aston Villa was founded in 1874, Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1877, Bolton Wanderers in 1874 and Everton in 1878. Due to the scope and popularity of the sport, professional football clubs carry a significant commercial existence, with fans expecting personal service and interactivity, and external stakeholders viewing

925-518: The acquirement of players to the club must only involve the eventual transfer of the rights to the contract of the player in question, and not the contract itself. There are several professional football clubs that are publicly traded. Normally, football clubs are not run with the intent of profit maximization , as its sports outcomes are considered more important than its financial outcomes by its ownership. In addition, financial regulations as, for example, UEFA Financial Fair Play may also limit what

962-638: The athlete's services. In many regions of the world like Europe , North Africa , West Asia , the Indian subcontinent or Central and South America , sports clubs with several sports departments (multisports clubs) or branches, including highly competitive professional teams, are very popular and have developed into some of the most powerful and representative sports institutions in those places. In general, student sports can be described as composed by multisports clubs, each one representing its educational institution and competing in several sport disciplines. In

999-470: The club in any activity as it regards to association football competitions. In association football terminology, competitions are referred to as "club competitions". Supporters may also acquire membership rights within their club. Even sponsors may be accounted for as members of the club of affiliation. This is a reason as to why the sport came to be called association football. The exact requirements for club licensing are regulated by FIFA and implemented on

1036-596: The colleges but by student organizations (see National Club Football Association and American Collegiate Hockey Association for two leagues consisting entirely of college "club" teams in American football and ice hockey , respectively). In the United Kingdom , almost all major sports organisations are dedicated to a single sport, the exception to this is Cardiff Athletic Club based in Cardiff , Wales, which

1073-621: The colonial period. Even after 1997 the transfer of sovereignty to China , it continues to represent Hong Kong separately from the People's Republic of China as its own national team in international competitions due to the " One country, two systems " principle. The team has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup , with the closest time being the 1986 World Cup cycle , which also highlighted their most successful period. On 14 January 2024, Hong Kong midfielder Philip Chan Siu-kwan scored

1110-447: The entire season, and have the right to practice almost every kind of sport at the club's facilities. Registered associate member fees, attendance receipts, sponsoring contracts, team merchandising , TV rights, and athlete/player transfer fees , are usually the primary sources of sports club financing. In addition, there are sports clubs, or its teams, which are publicly listed - several professional European football clubs belonging to

1147-523: The field of competitive club sports, an athlete will typically be registered to only one club for a given discipline and will compete for that club exclusively for the duration of a competition or season. Exceptions to this include player trades and transfers, athlete loan agreements and unattached trialists. Where an athlete competes in multiple disciplines, or where club membership has social or training aspects such as local athletic clubs, then athletes may register with multiple clubs. Multiple membership

Football in Hong Kong - Misplaced Pages Continue

1184-416: The field of professional football as a source of significant business advantages. For this reason, expensive player transfers have become an expectable part of the sport. Awards are also handed out to managers or coaches on a yearly basis for excellent performances. The designs, logos and names of professional football clubs are often licensed trademarks. The difference between a football team and

1221-641: The league. There are several cup competitions for clubs at different levels of the football pyramid. The most important cup competition is the Senior Shield , with the winners of the FA Cup qualifying for the play-off of AFC Champions League Two . There have also been a number of other cup competitions which are no longer run: The Hong Kong national football team represents Hong Kong in men's international football events. The team competed their first international match in 1947 against South Korea during

1258-561: The quality of Hong Kong football under a government scheme called ‘ Project Phoenix’ . All the football leagues are organized by the HKFA. The Hong Kong Premier League began its first season in 2014–15 and is the top flight in Hong Kong. There are 11 teams who compete in the league, all of whom are fully professional. The lower divisions consist of the First Division (D1 League), the Second Division (D2 League), and

1295-734: The several sports teams owned by Red Bull GmbH and collectively known as Red Bulls . Other examples of this are the several sports teams owned by Bayer AG and Philips corporations through the Bayer 04 Leverkusen and PSV Eindhoven respectively, that originally were works teams , the teams owned by the Samsung Group ( Samsung Sports ), and the teams owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). They may compete in several different sports and leagues, being headquartered in some cases across several countries. In

1332-489: Was founded in 1908. It is probably the oldest professional league in Asia. Most records before the Second World War have been lost and not many people can remember the old glory of Hong Kong's professional football. The Hong Kong Football Association, the governing body of Hong Kong football, was founded in 1914 and is one of the oldest football associations in Asia. In the 1970s and 1980s, football in Hong Kong

1369-488: Was strong and popular, with competitive local teams boosted by well known overseas players and managers, playing in front crowds of tens of thousands. In 1985, in a famous match, Hong Kong upset China , 2-1 , in Beijing to move towards a place in the 1986 World Cup . The team ultimately fell short of qualification. In recent years, major attempts have been made by Hong Kong government to improve both HKFA’s governance and

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