In today’s edition:

• A World Cup divided

   

• Rugby on the rocks?

   

• What’s on where

The Fifa World Cup kicked off on Thursday in Mexico, and for those who truly love the sport, the best thing will be for the next six weeks to be an utter disaster, because then we may finally get the wholesale change the game needs.

What is supposed to be a celebration of football has again exposed those at the top for who they truly are – and it’s not a pretty sight.

And while there can be little surprise the United States is not the welcoming host Fifa president Gianni Infantino promised everyone it would be, the level to which it has sunk is still impressive in its pettiness.

Not even the Germans in 1936 stooped to the level Donald Trump’s America has reached.

Oh for the golden days of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini. Some might consider their foibles minor infractions compared to dynamic pricing, stopping fans from taking water bottles into stadiums, and allowing the banning of referees, team officials and fans.

Infantino’s responses, meanwhile, have done nothing but expose once more where his loyalties lie; with sponsors and the first peace prizewinner. When an organisation and its leader repeatedly shows you what and who they are, at some point you should pay attention.

Officials in Africa, Europe and elsewhere are not beyond criticism in this either. The game’s administrators globally have long ignored what is good for the game in favour of what is good for the gravy train.

And then there is the Asian Football Confederation, which nominally represents teams such as Iran, Iraq and Uzbekistan, all of whom have been targeted by the US in the past week.

Without a hint of sarcasm or irony, AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa issued a statement this week expressing “compliments and full solidarity to Fifa”, and wishing it the “very best of luck”.

“We have total confidence that this edition will serve as a powerful beacon of unity, bringing together fans and diverse cultures from every corner of the globe while charting inspiring new frontiers for world football,” Salman added.

Infantino has been labelled many things as a result of his behaviour, including cowardice. That is wrong. The Swiss is more Machiavelli than yellow belly, and like 99.9 per cent of politicians, money, power and self-interest, not public interest, have been his guiding light. If JRR Tolkien was alive today, Grima Wormtongue may well have been bald.

Football needs to rid itself of this turbulent lawyer, and only having “the biggest, the best, the greatest, the most inclusive World Cup in the history of Fifa” be a disaster will do that.

Fan boycotts are unlikely, but one can only hope that the thousands of empty seats in Guadalajara will be repeated several times over elsewhere. Getting hit in the pocket often enough might eventually get the message across.

Josh Ball

News Editor, Sport & Racing

Good, bad, or ugly

There are several ways of looking at Hong Kong’s seventh successive Asian Rugby Emirates Men’s Championship triumph – as a celebration of strength in depth, as a sad indictment of the game in the region, or as a serious cause for concern when it comes to the city’s own ambitions.

A third-string made up of senior players needing minutes, club players and those with heady ambitions of being ready for the 2031 World Cup push brushed aside South Korea with relative ease last Sunday.

The 45-9 scoreline may not have been as lopsided as the 70-22 hammering Hong Kong handed out in Incheon last year, or the 67-7 one at Football Club in 2024, but it was no less emphatic.

From Hong Kong’s perspective, the past month has seen 18 players blooded as full internationals and sent back to their clubs with the message to be ready for 2027 and beyond.

Nigel Hotham, who led a Hong Kong coaching team also pulled from the sidelines, was at least realistic enough to know where most of the squad ranked in the pecking order.

“We had a team talk this morning and I said [to the players], ‘everyone’s got a reason to bring your A game’,” Hotham said immediately afterwards. “Some of these guys it’s just to say, look at me, I’m a club player but I’ve stood up to a Test match.

“The hope is that those club players go back and lift the level of the club, so it actually helps the level of Hong Kong rugby and the depth of the representative teams. I really cross my fingers that next year that someone who’s on a bigger pay scale decides we go in the ARC again.”

Quite what sort of state South Korean rugby is in, is anyone’s guess, but it doesn’t look good. The 23 players who took part last weekend included just four from the 2025 loss, and four who were recalled after the trouncing they experienced in 2024.

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, almost pulled off an upset against Hong Kong, only to have to forfeit this weekend’s game against Korea because they could not get their act together over the necessary visas.

With Japan decades ahead of everyone else in Asia, South Korea should be Hong Kong’s biggest rivals at this level.

As it is, the chasm that exists between Hong Kong and South Korea is mirrored in the one that exists between Japan and Hong Kong, and neither will be closed unless significant changes are made.

In that, South Korea are on their own, as are Hong Kong, but there can be no argument about the need for action in the domestic game in both.

Hong Kong China Rugby bosses wasted the most recent opportunity to improve standards by opting against having a team play in Japan’s lower divisions.

There is a belief among some that they can be raised within the city’s six-team premiership. But unless clubs are going to suddenly start importing All Blacks and Springboks in need of a paid holiday, all that will grow is the gap.

Of course, none of this should diminish the achievement of the 23 men who took to the Football Club pitch last weekend. Whatever direction their careers take from now on, they will forever be international rugby players, Asian champions and part of the city’s sporting history.

Washington Sentinels quarterback Shane Falco, aka Keanu Reeves, perhaps said it best: “Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever.”

What's on where this weekend

What’s on where this weekend

• In the absence of any local football there’s a little competition taking place in North America that should keep fans from going cold turkey. The time difference isn’t great, but there are four matches on Sunday to keep you entertained. Qatar and Switzerland kick things off at 3am, with Brazil taking on Mexico at 6pm, Scotland clashing with Haiti at 9am and Australia v Turkey bringing the curtain down at 12pm.

   

• We’re into the twilight of this season’s racing calendar, literally. Saturday’s meeting at Sha Tin gets going at 4pm with the Sunbird Plate. All eyes meanwhile will be on trainer Francis Lui, who has prepared more winners at the track this season, and has the in-form Packing Angel in the Class Two Peacock Handicap at 7.35pm.