Tai Po FC
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| Wofoo Tai Po | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Tai Po Football Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Founded | 2002 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Tai Po Sports Ground (Capacity 3,000) |
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| Chairman |  Chu King Yuen |
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| Head Coach | Chan Ho Yin |
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| League | Hong Kong First Division | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2007–08 | First Division, 3rd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tai Po Football Club (Wofoo Tai Po, Chinese: Full:和富大埔/Simplified:大埔) is a Hong Kong football (soccer) club. The club is formed by the Tai Po District Council. The club is named after their major sponsor, Wofoo Social Enterprises.
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[edit] History
The club entered the newly formed third 'district' division in 2002-03 season. They promoted to the Second Division the next season. In 2005-06 season, they gained the promotion to the First Division after finishing second in the Second Division, behind HKFC.
[edit] 2006-07 Season
[edit] Poor Start
Tai Po struggled during early stage of the 2006-07 season, conceded 13 goals in the first three league matches, which is consistent with many pre-season predictions.
[edit] The Home game
Wofoo Tai Po's fourth game of the season was at home against local giant South China AA on 30 September 2006. This was the first ever Hong Kong First Division League game to be played in Tai Po Sports Ground. With over 2,500 supporters cheering the home team and the signings of three Brazilian players, the club played courageously and only lost the game in the last minute by 2-3.
[edit] Improvements
The club's performance vastly improved since the home game. They recorded some surprising victories including a great come back (scored a 4-3 from 1-3) against the defending league champion Happy Valley and a last minute winner(a direct free kick to make it 2-1 by defender Joel in 90') against multiple cup winner Kitchee in November 2006.
Tai Po secured their First Division berth for the 2007-08 season after defeating HKFC 3-0 on April 5, 2007, which also resulted in HKFC's relegation.
[edit] Achievements
- Hong Kong First Division League: 7th
- HKFA Choi Fung Hong Senior Shield: Quarter-final (Details)
- Hong Kong League Cup: First Round (Third in Group A) (Details)
- Hong Kong FA Cup:
[edit] 2007-08 Season
After the inaugural season, the club's coach Chan Hiu Ming (陳曉明) left the club for the newly promoted Workable (華家堡). Tai Po FC spent most of the off-season searching for a new coach. Finally, former Hong Kong football star Tim Bredbury, who coached Rangers for a short period of time in the previous season, accepted the job. Moreover, in response to the successful and popular home game last season, Tai Po FC has applied for 5 home games to be played in Tai Po in the following season.
HKFA has announced the decision: the first 9 matches of Tai Po FC, no matter scheduled as home or away game, will be played in Tai Po Sports Ground.[1] But the arrangement was strongly criticized and objected by the first game opponent, Workable's manager also Tai Po FC's ex-coach Chan Hiu Ming. Chan Hiu Ming expressed his team would not play their home game at Tai Po Sports Ground firmly and questioned the fairness about the arrangement[2]. Eventually, HKFA re-arranged the schedule, where Tai Po FC would only play their home game at Tai Po Sports Ground for the entire season.
Unfortunately, Tai Po Sports Ground's refurbishment didn't help much on the pitch quality. Up to this point, no Tai Po FC's game has been held at Tai Po Sports Ground.
Apart from promoting players from the youth team, the team kept most of its important homegrown players, except Kan Tsz Yeung( 簡子洋) and Chung Kin Keung (鍾健強), both left to join Workable. The three foreign players also stayed with the team in the new season, including the fans' favourite Christian Kwesi Annan (安基斯). New players was introduced after the season has started. Chinese player Ye Jia was signed from Rangers FC after the first match, and followed by the Brazilian forward Rafael dos Santos, Betine "Betine", who has also scored a debut goal in the match against Rangers FC.
[edit] Stadium
Main article(s): Tai Po Sports Ground
Tai Po FC played their first home matches on Tai Po Sports Ground at 30th September, 2006, against South China AA. As a public integrated sport facilities and is owned by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department(Hong Kong Government), the pitch and grass quality are insufficient to meet the requirement of professional football. However with the refurbishment in 2007, Tai Po FC has applied to have 5 home games, between September to November, to be held in the Sports Ground in season 2007-08.
HKFA later decided the first 9 matches of Tai Po FC, no matter scheduled as home or away game, will be played in Tai Po Sports Ground however, which is even more than the club demanded.
HKFA right now is even considering to arrange two matches at the same match day in the sports ground.(This type of arrangement is common in recent years of Hong Kong First Division League game, where two matches will be played immediately one after another in the same stadium, usually in weekend, so that fans can watch two matches with single match ticket price. It's known as "double entertainment" Chinese:雙料娛樂)
[edit] Supporters
Tai Po FC fans are generally Tai Po District residents. The fans also give enough impact in terms of quantity and atmosphere in season 2006-07.[3]
[edit] Book
Wofoo Tai Po published its own book to commemorate its first season in the Hong Kong First Division League. The book is titled Wofoo Tai Po - Football can fulfill dreams (和富大埔—足可圓夢). The book has about 160 colour pages and is completely in Chinese. It contains many player interviews, history and views on district football and Hong Kong's participation in the Homeless World Cup. It retails at HK$68 (US$9). Its ISBN number is: 978-988-99851-1-0.
[edit] Current squad
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[edit] External links
- (Chinese) Official site
- Hong Kong Football
[edit] References
- ^ 〈大埔主場或有「雙料娛樂」〉, 大公報, 4th August 2007
- ^ 〈大埔對手華家堡堅拒作客〉, 大公報, 8th August 2007
- ^ 〈本地波Fans對撼〉, 蘋果日報副刊, 22th April 2007
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