As I sit here in front of the television, awaiting the kick-off of the Asia Trophy clash between Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur, I am posed with a few questions. Does this warrant the TV coverage that Sky are giving it? What’s the point of travelling all the way to Hong Kong for this? How much are we really meant to care about a pre-season friendly?
It seems that come the end of the July our standards are lower. We’ve been deprived of football all summer, especially with no European Championships or World Cup, and our withdraw symptoms are kicking in big time. Any game will do, even a fairly unimportant one.
Just yesterday (Tuesday), Aston Villa lost 2-0 to Luton Town while Manchester United lost 3-2 to Yokohama. This morning shouldn’t we have been met with newspaper headlines reporting crisis at Villa and United after these disastrous results? Of course not, it’s just a friendly. It’s not about results, it’s about fitness, it’s about preparation and it’s about getting a team ready for the start of the new season. Isn’t it?
With that in mind, with preparation being the only aim of a pre-season friendly, what is the reason behind Spurs and Sunderland having to take a 12 hour flight to Hong Kong in order to play each other? If Spurs and Sunderland want to play each other then surely common sense would dictate that it requires at most a 4 hour car journey. But no, Hong Kong is the destination for these two and for Manchester City who are also involved in the competition.
Maybe I was being rather naïve before, because we all know by now that preparation isn’t the prime objective here, it’s brand building. Both for the clubs and for the Premier League.
As I write this Sunderland v Spurs is now underway, kick off delayed for 30 mins due to torrential rain. It’s not ideal conditions for a game, we see Clint Dempsey of Spurs trying to lay the ball back to Scott Parker from the kick off only to see that the waterlogged pitch stops the pass about 3 yards short. It’s likely that in England this game would not have gone ahead but for business reasons it would have been unthinkable to call this off with the stadium near full.
As Alan Curbishly on commentary keeps telling us “at least the players can focus on fitness if nothing else”. A smart way of telling us that a game of football can’t really be played in these conditions. And that’s not where the problems end. Both teams are playing in dark shorts and predominantly white shirts which makes for an awkward viewing experience. But it’s much better for business if fans see both teams playing in their home strip.
There’s currently only 15 minutes gone in the game and the pitch now looks noticeably worse than it did at kick off. It resembles a Sunday league pitch, a bad one. What makes this pitch issue more relevant is that as soon as this game concludes Man City will take to the field to play South China. But perhaps it’s all worth it for a chance to win that much sought after Asia Trophy, right?
(Note: Gylfi Sigurðsson has just scored for Spurs, a few polite handshakes follow, this is very much just a pre-season friendly.)
That’s a fairly new trend in pre-season fixtures, put a trophy at the end of it, give the impression it means something, make it more marketable to the new audience you’re trying to tap into. It makes sense, but as we all know it’s a bit of a myth that there is serious silverware on the line here. If there were then I think it is unlikely that Spurs would leave both Brad Friedel and Hugo Lloris on the bench in favour of Heurelho Gomes, who has started today.
But as a business model it seems to work. Sky’s pre-match build up showed Spurs players being mobbed by locals for autographs and pictures, all of whom were decked out in Spurs hats, jackets, scarves, baseball caps and numerous other pieces of merchandise. Money has been spent on Tottenham Hotspur almost 6000 miles from White Hart Lane. Perhaps this is the fruit of Spurs Asia Trophy success of 4 years ago.
(Note: Tom Huddlestone, or Puddlestone as the commentator referred to him once, just took a first touch so heavy that it would have been considered a little too aggressive if it was a pass, leading to a Sunderland equaliser. Either the conditions or Tom Huddlestone (or both) are atrocious.)
And this is the point I guess, they’re in Hong Kong to sell shirts, to attract fans, to ultimately make money. The money-spinning pre-season tour is common place now amongst Europe’s biggest clubs.
(Note: Half Time, 1-1. There have been two chances and a lot of sliding around in the middle of the pitch. Presumably not great preparation, especially for Sunderland who are trying to gel a lot of new personnel. Although both Craig Gardner and Michael Dawson seem to love it. Ray Winstone is trying to get me to make an in-play bet, I can’t see it happening.)
It seems that the best place for your pre-season work is wherever the next untapped market is. That’s why the tours of the USA that were so commonplace a few years ago are happening less and less as the game grows there.
It’s not a concept that is unique to football. Both the NFL and NBA play league games in London to promote their sport on these shores. Maybe, instead of complaining about nothing games being played halfway around the world we should be grateful that we haven’t lost any league games to the foreign markets...yet.