2017 Premier League Asia Trophy
Prepare your passports, the English Premier League is heading to Asia for the 8th Premier League Asia Trophy!
The biennial friendly tournament is set to be held in Hong Kong and in Shanghai with the matches tentatively scheduled on July 19 and 22. Both matchdays however have yet to be assigned to either
cities despite some reports saying that Hong Kong hosts the 1st matchday on the 19th and Shanghai on the 22nd. This is mainly because Shanghai’s football club, Shanghai SIPG FC who is set to participate in the tournament, has a scheduled match against Guangzhou Evergrande on the same day.
In the midst of matchday schedule issues, the Hong Kong Football Association is in constant communication with the EPL expressing their intent to host the whole tournament. If ever they succesfully convince the EPL, the Hong Kong Stadium with a capacity of 40,000 will be the sole venue for the tourney.
As of writing, Liverpool FC is so far the only confirmed participant for the tournament. They are expected to be joined by two more premier league clubs rumored to be either Southampton, West Bromwich Albion and/or last year's champs, Leicester City. The champions of the Hong Kong Premier League will also join the Hong Kong leg of the tournament.
Ticket prices hasn't been released but based from the last edition of the tournament in 2015 in Singapore, tickets were pegged for as low as $40 (P1427.45) on the first matchday and $45 (P1605.88) on the second matchday, while the most expensive ones were priced at $145 (P5174.5) for the first matchday and $155 (P5531.36) on the second matchday.
Despite the uncertainties on the schedule one thing is assured, top class football is heading to Hong Kong which is slightly more than 2 hours away from Manila!
Follow Powcast.net for further updates on the 2017 Premier League Asia Trophy.