Mark Sutcliffe: Inside Hong Kong Football

Josh Schneider-Weiler
Sep 3, 2017
2 min read

Our guest today is CEO of the Hong Kong Football Association Mark Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe is responsible for developing football on and off the pitch in Hong Kong. Since he has taken over Hong Kong has risen over 20 places in the FIFA and rankings they now have 2 teams in the AFC Champions League.

Before working in Hong Kong Sutcliffe was the CEO of Strategic Leisure Limited where he consulted sports and leisure projects for nearly 20 years.

In recent years he developed a football centre of excellence in Singapore, and refurbished the National Stadium in Kiev which was venue for the final of the European Football Championships 2012.

In this episode we discuss the difficulties growing the game in Hong Kong, possible FIFA reforms, the growing pains of the Hong Kong Premier League, whether Financial Fair Play should be introduced to Asia and how he mistakenly invited a 16 year old blogger to his office.

If you want to learn more about Mark Sutcliffe and the Hong Kong Football Association you can visit their site here or his personal blog here.

Timeline

At being of the "mercy of the elements" in the Pacific 3:40

On making the impossible possible in Singapore 8:05

His typical workweek 11:00

Why its difficult for Hong Kong clubs to get a license necessary for the HK premier league 17:50

Making radical changes to Hong Kong football 22:20

The physical deficiencies that exist with Hong Kong players 28:50

On FIFA discussions for possible reform 38:30

How ingrained football is in Hong Kong 44:55

If Financial Fair Play should be introduced in Asia 49:00

Partnering with European teams 53:40