Hong Kong Football Club chief lauds ‘long-term target’ of securing Squash World Team Championships
- Neil Jensen says event showcases another signal the city continues to bounce back after Covid-19 pandemic
- Birmingham was in frame to host combined WSF World Team Championships but city’s council decided against the idea
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Hong Kong Football Club chairman Neil Jensen said his club was realising a long-term goal by landing the rights to host the squash World Team Championships in December.
Both men’s and women’s events will be held at the Happy Valley club, and Jensen said it was another sign of the city’s continued revival after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The World Squash Federation awarded HKFC the rights to host the championships after council officials in the UK city of Birmingham, which is effectively bankrupt, withdrew from the running.
“We want to put on the best tournaments we can,” Jensen said. “We were keen to do this a couple of years ago but I believe it was New Zealand that got it in the end [with the men’s World Team Championships in Tauranga] last year.
“So this wasn’t something new for us but we’ve talked about it for quite a while.”
Jensen added: “World Squash came to us because we had expressed interest a couple of years ago and we made a very, very quick decision.
“We were keen to do it; we want to support massive events in Hong Kong because the city is bouncing back after Covid and it’s for the community and everybody to really get behind it.”
HKFC is no stranger to hosting squash events, having staged the inaugural WSF World Doubles Championships in 1997 and the 2014 WSF World Masters Championships, as well as numerous professional World Tour and junior events.
The WSF World Team Championships have been held biennially since 1967 for the men’s events, and 1979 for the women’s events. The HKFC edition, which runs from December 9 to 15, will be the first time the two events are held concurrently.
On top of the three ASB glass courts and four other traditional courts at the club, organisers would also borrow an all-glass show court from New Zealand for the event later this year, said Dick Lau Siu-wai, the club’s interim director of squash.
“We expect to host no less than 700 spectators during the championships, of which the all-glass show court can accommodate around 600,” the former Hong Kong team member said.
Lau, who took the men’s team bronze at the Asian Games in 2010, added that the expected cost of the combined team championships was in the region of HK$5 million to HK$8 million and it was “in the process” of securing government funding as a major sports event.
