In 2025, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will jointly host the 15th National Games. Huo Qigang, a deputy to the National People's Congress, said in an interview with a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News that this is a good opportunity to explore the integration of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, unite people's hearts with sports, and show the international community the "new form of human civilization" of Chinese-style modernization.
As the Vice President of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, Fok Qigang went to Beijing to attend the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress with six proposals, three of which were related to the development of sports in the Greater Bay Area. He proposed that the construction of the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Sports Bay Area" should be promoted, and he also suggested that the Chinese Football Association, the Hong Kong Football Association of China and the Macau Football Association of China could jointly bid for the 2031 Women's World Cup.
Huo Qigang attended the opening meeting of the Second Session of the 14th National People's Congress. Photo courtesy of the intervieweePromote the construction of the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Sports Bay Area".
Fok Qigang believes that compared with other bay areas in the world, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has competitive advantages such as abundant sports resources, superior hardware infrastructure, and the integration of cultural tourism and sports into new business formats. However, there is still room for further improvement in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in terms of bringing together the world's top athletes, attracting global sports audiences, and building a platform for sports research and academic exchanges.
Huo Qigang said for example, in the New York Bay Area, the New York Marathon, as one of the world's six major marathons, has a maximum of more than 100,000 participants, and more than 700,000 spectators at the US Open tennis tournament every year, while the current Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area series of events is mostly about 10,000 people, and the gap is still large. In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are billions of dollars worth of professional sports clubs such as the Golden State Warriors and the San Francisco 49ers, and the sports performance industry and sports service industry have once become the pillars leading the development of San Francisco, while the professional clubs in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area started late and have not yet made significant economic contributions.
Therefore, Huo Qigang proposed that the National Games should be used as an opportunity to promote the construction of the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Sports Bay Area" from various aspects. After the National Games, it should focus on the six core functions of major events, regional headquarters of sports organizations, high-level athlete training bases, sports medicine and sports centers, sports education and academic exchange centers, and sports industry convention and exhibition centers, so as to promote the mutual support and development of sports events, training, exchanges, leisure, medical care, scientific research, business exhibitions, entertainment and performing arts, shopping and catering and other industries in the Greater Bay Area.
Huo Qigang also said that it is possible to explore and strengthen the service position of sports social organizations, support the headquarters of international sports social organizations to settle in the Greater Bay Area, and enrich the event system of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, create regional events such as the Greater Bay Area Open, Challenge, and Elite Competition, and jointly host internationally renowned events and jointly build international event brands.
It is recommended that the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao jointly bid to host the 2031 Women's World Cup
Throughout the international sports world, the Football World Cup is one of the most influential and commercially valuable events. In recent years, the influence and commercial value of the Women's World Cup have also risen rapidly. Based on the experience of the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the tournament will generate up to 5700 million US dollars, second only to the 2022 Qatar Men's World Cup, has received widespread attention around the world.
Huo Qigang pointed out that according to FIFA's continental rotation hosting principle for the World Cup, the 2034 Men's World Cup has determined that Saudi Arabia of the AFC has become the only bidding country, so China, which is also a member of the AFC, has a low degree of feasibility in bidding for the Men's World Cup in the past ten years, but there are no similar provisions for the Women's World Cup.
Therefore, Huo Qigang suggested that the Chinese Football Association, the Hong Kong Football Association of China, and the Macau Football Association of China jointly bid for the Women's World Cup. At the same time, Fok Qigang believes that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can play a role in related work in many aspects.
Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will jointly host the National Games in 2025, including Hong Kong's Kai Tak Sports Park, Guangzhou's Nansha National Cultural and Sports Complex and other newly completed large-scale venues, sports facilities are enough to meet the needs of the competition, and at the same time have a mature railway system and accommodation and other basic practical conditions, plus with the coordination and communication mechanism established by the three places in the National Games, it is absolutely capable of jointly hosting the Women's World Cup. Huo Qigang is full of confidence in this.
In addition, Fok Qigang also proposed that we should seize the opportunity of the bid to host the Women's World Cup, strictly maintain a number of sports facilities that have been completed in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, strengthen tourism, hotel and transportation facilities, strengthen the hosting capacity, and continue to improve the "one-way multi-stop" tourism model in the region, so as to bring long-term business momentum to the national sports-related industries.
At the same time, we can consider organizing women's football events in the Greater Bay Area, promoting the professionalization of women's football, making the brand value of women's football in the Greater Bay Area facing the world, realizing the positive cycle of China's football system, and then reserving resources for the future bid for the men's World Cup and other large-scale international events, and creating a business card for the Bay Area, an international event.