Hong Kong to Host Exciting Football Festival 2025 Featuring Liverpool, AC Milan, Arsenal, and Tottenham at Kai Tak Stadium.

Speech by SCST at Hong Kong Football Festival 2025 Press Conference

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Miss Rosanna Law, at the Hong Kong Football Festival 2025 Press Conference today (March 31):

Miss Rachel Carroll (Managing Director of TEG Sport), Mr Pui Kwan-kay (President of the Football Association of Hong Kong, China), media friends, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon. First of all, I hope you have recovered from the excitement, and I actually mean hangover, of Hong Kong Rugby Sevens already. And more importantly, I hope you are as excited as I am in joining this press conference to announce the big event this coming summer: Hong Kong Football Festival 2025 to be held in our new Kai Tak Sports Park, Kai Tak Stadium. Four top international football teams will be playing in two matches in the last week of July. And you heard the details from Carroll just now.

There is indeed no better way of concluding our Super March with the announcement of yet another set of mega sports events. While we may still be overwhelmed by the joy and atmosphere of the Hong Kong Sevens or are still savouring the series of arts and cultural offerings in March, Hong Kong is in fact all set to welcome Liverpool, AC Milan, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur to Hong Kong. I did promise you that the mega event calendar in Hong Kong will continue to be filled by highly anticipated events, and that I will be personally announcing our major international football matches with a big grin on my face, so here you go!

Hong Kong Football Festival 2025 represents so much more than two football matches. It is a celebration of Hong Kong and Asia's longstanding passion for football, one of the most powerful sports in captivating audiences from around the world.

Another milestone meaning for these two matches is of course that they will be the first international football club matches to be staged at our world-class new stadium at Kai Tak Sports Park.

My special thanks go to our special guests - the legendary players from all four teams. They have come all the way to share our excitement. I can already feel that the "football temperature" is rising in Hong Kong. And I am sure that the adrenaline of our football fans is pumping up fast.

Before I close, I would like to thank TEG Sport for bringing to us this wonderful football festival. Let's work together to make this event a great success! And I look forward to seeing you all at Kai Tak Stadium in end-July.

Property owner fined over $150,000 for persistently not complying with removal order

A property owner was fined over $150,000 last week upon conviction at the Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts in September last year for persistently failing to comply with a removal order issued under the Buildings Ordinance (BO) (Cap. 123).

This case involved several unauthorised structures with a total area of about 760 square metres on the roof of an industrial building on Sheung Hei Street and Tai Yau Street, San Po Kong. As the unauthorised building works (UBWs) were carried out without prior approval and consent from the Buildings Department (BD), a removal order was served on the owner under section 24(1) of the BO.

Failing to comply with the removal order, the owner was prosecuted twice by the BD and was fined over $70,000 in total upon convictions by the court. As the owner persisted in not complying with the removal order, the BD instigated a third prosecution in 2023. The owner was convicted at the Kowloon City Magistrates' Courts on September 25, 2024, and the court adjourned the hearing and ordered the owner to report the status of the removal of the UBWs before handing down a sentence. On the adjourned hearing date of March 26, the owner reported to the court that the UBWs had been removed and eventually was fined $154,500 by the court, of which $124,500 was the fine for the number of days that the offence continued.

A spokesman for the BD said today (April 3), "UBWs may lead to serious consequences. Owners must comply with removal orders without delay. The BD will continue to take enforcement action and consider instigating prosecution against the owners again if they persist in not complying with removal orders to ensure building and public safety."

Failure to comply with a removal order without a reasonable excuse is a serious offence under the BO. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $200,000 and one year's imprisonment, and a further fine of $20,000 for each day that the offence continues.