Queens Park Rangers will be making their debut appearance at the HKFC Citi Soccer Sevens this year. ‘QPR’ had an impressive start to the 2022-23 campaign, competing at the top end of the second tier but struggled to maintain form to regain their Premier League status. February 2023 marked the start of a new era at the Club, with newly appointed Manager Gareth Ainsworth taking the reins, and with the support of Technical Director Chris Ramsey (ex. Tottenham Hotspur and the Football Association) and Director of Football Les Ferdinand (ex. QPR, Newcastle, Tottenham and England international), there is optimism for the 2023-24 campaign. The wealth of experience amongst the staff is contrast to its newly emerging talent within its B-Team cohort, who are travelling to represent West London on the international stage. The youngsters are hoping to emulate their recent graduates, such as Eberechi Eze, to go on to achieve their own success in the game, having mirrored a similar campaign to their senior, where they exited the Premier League Cup Round of 16 to neighbours Fulham.
Rio Cricket Associação Atlética was founded on August 15th 1897 in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Shepherded by George E. Cox and Basil Freeland, British citizens and descendents who lived in Rio de Janeiro at that time decided to create a space where they could play cricket and tennis. After all these years, the club has kept the pillars from its founders and modernized itself.
Football has been one of the main sports practiced by Rio Cricket’s members. As a matter of fact, the club has formed some prestigious professional Brazilian footballers such as Leonardo Araujo, Daniel Cortes and Flavio Pinto.
Some other important highlights in the history of Rio Cricket are: it held the 1st soccer football match of the State of Rio de Janeiro in 1901, the 3rd official football match of Brazil, it had the 1st tennis court of Brazil and participated in the Rio de Janeiro tournament from 1906-1915.
The founders adopted the colors green and yellow as the ones for its flag paying homage to Brazil, the country that has generously welcomed them and the new members of the club.
Tai Po Football Club is a district football team founded 20 years ago. Over the years, we have trained more than 20,000 teenagers and more than 5% have become professional players. We unite people hearts through their performance on the pitch and take social responsibility off the pitch. We organize school campus visits to enhance the interests of young people and establish teamwork and discipline through football.
We also collaborate with the Home Affairs Bureau, District Councils, regional organizations and charitable groups to promote positive messages through football. Our goal is to recruit more teenagers to join the team and we will provide them guidance to support their dreams of being a football player. As our slogan says, “Play for Community.”
CPK FOOTBALL TEAM is a Macau sports club established in 2009 to participate in the Macau First Division Football League. The chairman is Stephen Chow, the director is Iancio Hui.
The sponsor for 2017 is GRANDE LAB sporting goods. In January 2017, CPK announced the establishment of youth to discover talents for the future of the Macau football world.
In 2018, CPK won the title sponsorship of MACAU SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY GROUP CoLtd and will use “ MUST CPK “ to compete in all competitions throughout the following year, including seven-a-side and youth leagues.
Finally, our main ambition is to win every single soccer trophy in the world.
Tournament regulars KCC Veterans return to the HKFC Citi Soccer Sevens once more, since the last edition of the competition in 2019. They have a long-established history in the event and this year have signed-up the Leicester City Premier League Winning Defender, Danny Simpson, who joins KCC for the 2023 edition. Danny follows a long list of former players including Chelsea, West Ham and England International Carton Cole, Liverpool and England International legend John Barnes, ex-Scotland International and Everton forward Pat Nevin and former Northern Ireland International and Wimbledon striker Lawrie Sanchez, all who have represented the Club. The KCC Veterans reached the final of the Plate competition in both 2015 and 2016, losing to HKFC Chairman’s Select and Discovery Bay in respective years. KCC have also previously won the second-tier competition in 2009, by defeating Yau Yee League Masters 2-0 in the final. Their best-ever performances were in 2008 and 2011 when they advanced beyond the group stage to make the Cup quarter-finals. This year the team will be coached by the Hong Kong National Team Asst. Coach, Wolfgang Lussier and KCC are excited to be involved again in Hong Kong’s best Football 7’s Tournament.
