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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, at a media session after his visit to the Hong Kong Stadium this afternoon (July 29):
Reporter: What do you say about the conditions of the pitch here? And the impact on the image of Hong Kong as an international sports centre?
Secretary for Home Affairs: It is part of our policy to promote international sports mega events. July usually is the month when we have no competition and let the grass rest and grow. But due to these new mega events, we are having very intensive competitions on this turf. And, unfortunately, we had very heavy rain in the past few days which did not help the situation of the turf.
The Chief Executive came with us before noon this morning to actually see how the ground is turning out. We were glad to learn that Manchester United has inspected the ground and found it acceptable to have a good match this evening. After the match this evening, we will conduct a complete review and see what kind of measures we can implement in the short, medium and long term so as to have a fundamental resolution of the problem.
Reporter: ... responsibility ...?
Secretary for Home Affairs: I do realise that people are not happy with the state of our football ground over the weekend and I feel very sorry about this.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, July 29, 2013
Issued at HKT 19:45
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