[FM24] Kowloon City District Recreation & Sports Council

Introduction

While I continue my main save from FM23 into FM24, I have decided to have a couple of other saves on the go, created fresh in FM24. While you may have already seen my posts about my save currently in the Northern Mariana Islands with the Thundercats, this one is perhaps the more serious of the two.

In this save, I am as usual, starting out unemployed with a Sunday-league reputation and no coaching badges, the plan is to start out my career in Hong Kong and at a club in the Third Division, from there, the plan is to work my way up, either by taking my first team all the way, or by moving clubs, it really doesn't matter how I do it and unlike my FM23 main save, there are no rules here, I just want to reach the top, though, that's not to say I will not drop down the levels to seek out new and interesting challenges.

While there are no rules to my save and no definitive goals, there are a few teams I would like to manage on the way:

• Happy Valley - My favourite team from Hong Kong, should they emerge from the obscurity of non-league football and find their way back to being playable, I would like to take the reigns and put them back where they (probably don't really) belong.
• Hong Kong FC / Lucky Mile - Back on Championship Manager 2001, I tried managing the team but only got a few games into the season, I would like to give them another go at some point, possibly in this save, should the option emerge. Lucky Mile is the B team and while the job is available from the start, my plan is to start out at team in the league below them.
• South China / Eastern District / Southern District / C&W District / Wan Chai - Hong Kong teams that I've never managed but which interest me.
• Islands District / Sparta Asia / Double Flower / Biu Chun Rangers - Teams I have previously used that I would consider managing again. There are other teams in Hong Kong that I have managed or would be willing to manage again but right now they are in unplayable leagues or are defunct. 
• Yokohaka F. Marinos - Favourite Japanese team.
• Shanghai Shenhua - Favourite Chinese team.
• Suwon Samsung Bluewings - Favourite South Korean team.
• Shenzhen FC - My most used Chinese team on CM/FM games.

Beyond specific teams, I would also like to manage in Indonesia as I've never managed there, India as I have never completed a season in that country and Malaysia as I have not used a Malaysian team for a long time (not counting the national team which I managed a few years back).

With this save, I have a number of European countries loaded along with those in Asia, so there is also the possibility that I might not just manage in Asia.

August 2023 - Breaking News

August 2023

At the point of being appointed as manager, the team had already played four friendly matches, winning the first two and then losing the following two, there wasn't a lot of time until the new season began but I managed to setup two additional matches, which we won fairly comfortably.

September 2023

As the new season fast approaches, I have had to act quickly to improve this side, doing so in dramatic fashion, bringing in twenty four new players and ten members of the backroom staff. The squad as it was when I joined, might have been good enough to reach a mid-table position, but I want us to be the best that we can be, and if that means replacing the entire squad, I will do just that.

The goal, or should I say, my goal, is to get us out of this division, I want to do this on the first attempt as there is no point doing things by half measures, we're going all in, and at this level, with all the players being amateur, there is no wage or transfer budget to worry about, so long as players are interested in joining us and if I feel that they will improve us, I will do the business. 

September 2023

Half time in Hong Kong and we've had a great start to the season, a few of our players are yet to find their feet, which is understandable given that I replaced almost the entire squad at the end of pre-season, but by and large, the squad is generally performing to or above my expectations.
 

In the league we started out being predicted to finish somewhere in the midfield, after the bulk of my signings were complete, the media had us up to second, but with our success on the field in the first half of the year and Supreme FC's struggles, we are now 1-4 favourite to win the league.

Along with the Third Division, we are also playing in the Junior FA Cup. We have no real expectations in this competition and the board only expect us to be competitive. We managed to Kui Tan from our division in the first round, but the stand-out performance was a 3-1 victory in the second round, where we beat First Division side Eastern District. For the third round we face Tsuen Wan, also from our division, hopefully we can progress but even if we do beat them, there are still several teams from the next two leagues above us so ultimate success in the competition is not necessarily on the cards.

February 2024

It wasn't an amazing performance from the team as a whole, but credit to my strikers, they were the two best players on the pitch, despite one being fifty years old and the other being fifty-six lol.
 

With our win over Kui Tan, we are pleased to welcome Detinho and Chan Kam Pui to our squad, they join Colly and Seb Buddle who arrived just prior to our previous game. These four players give us a little bit of a boost as we look to continue our excellent run of form and hopefully see out the season as champions. 
 

Other than the four players mentioned above, we did also sign a few youth players as well, at the moment, these guys are a little way off being relevant enough to bother uploading their screenshots, but they are however important to our future as a good proportion of my senior team is likely to retire at the end of this season, this is because aside from the two guys in their fifties, we also have six players in their forties and twelve in their thirties.

With twenty games played, there are now eight games left of the season, there are a maximum of twenty-four points available in the remaining games but we are currently twelve points clear and with a game in hand, as such, I am fairly confident at this point, that we will be able to cross the line as champions. 
 

In the Junior FA Cup, we are still in the competition and face a quarter final match against Second Division side Kwai Tsing, as the bigger club and from the division above us, they should be favourites for the match though I do think we have a reasonable chance against them and whatever the outcome, I think it will be a close game.

March 2024

Kowloon City District Recreation & Sports Council win the Hong Kong Third Division and secure promotion to the Second Division after beating the Hong Kong Gold & Silver Ornament Workers & Merchants General Union 7-2.

With the title secured, we now have five games left of the season and with little to play for, we might well look to give some of our up and coming players a chance to impress.

In the Junior FA Cup, we face a semi-final game against either Wing Yee or the Kowloon City District Council, our senior affiliate, either way we are going to face a First Division side, and should we reach the final, it will be against either Central & Western District or 3 Sing, both also from the First Division, from this point on, things should be tough, but that said, we did manage to beat Eastern District in the second round and they were also from the First Division so we might have a chance here, if we play to the best of our abilities and have a little luck on our side as well.

May 2024

The 2023/2024 season is over, though we were confirmed as champions with several games still to play, we can now reveal the final table, as you can see, we finished well ahead of our nearest competitions, leading with a gap of eighteen points. Joining us in the Second Division next season will be Kui Tan, the team we knocked out in the Junior FA Cup First Round.
 

As you can see from the results, we have done well for most of the season, just suffering a few setbacks towards the end, including in our Junior FA Cup match against Kowloon City District Council, where we lost the game 1-0 in what was the semi-final. Despite the loss, we did very well to reach the round we did, and the media considered us to be the biggest overachievers in the competition.

Looking ahead to next season, the plan, for now, is to remain where I am, we have lost or will soon lose a good portion of the squad to retirement, my job is going to be to rebuild the side ready for the new season and the challenge that awaits in the next division above, that said, should Happy Valley gain promotion to the Third Division and consider me suitable to lead them, I would jump at the chance, also should a team from the Premier Division come along, it would take some persuading to keep me around, especially as they would be offering me a paid position where as right now, my contract is still amateur and unpaid (though that might change as the team is in the process of going semi-pro).

Hello, great story so far! Are all the logos and faces from the the megapacks on this website? Where did you get the kits?

This site has most of the logos I believe, as for the kits and faces, I'm not sure, I saw a link to them a few years back when somebody uploaded a Hong Kong leagues database but I couldn't tell you which site it was on. If there not on here, you could try FMScout, FMInside or FMSlovakia, they tend to have a good selection of kits and facepacks.

May-July 2024
 

At the end of the 2023/2024 season, we said goodbye to a number of our senior players, now with the challenge of playing in the Hong Kong Second Division quickly approaching, we have begun in earnest, strengthening the side and plugging any gaps in the squad left by those departing.

Joining us for the forthcoming season are two new strikers, Robbie Stamp (from Maccabi HK) and Conrad Szymański (from St. Joseph's). Stamp has impressed for us in a couple of friendly games while on trial while Szymański was the second highest goalscorer last season in the Third Division.
 

In the middle of the park, we have so far added Wong Hin Sum, a centre-midfielder, in the coming days, we are hoping to bring in another centre-midfielder or possibly a central attacking-midfielder as well.

In defence we are pleased to announce the arrival of the amazingly named Wang King Yiu at left-back, Leong Ka Lok at right-back and Stefan Antonić at centre-back.
 

Finally, we have a new goalkeeper in Chin Siu Sum, formerly of Wofoo Tai Po.

With so many new faces, and likely more to come, it may take a while before this team is firing on all cylinders, but we have plenty of time during pre-season to begin moving in the right direction.

The next update will be at the end of pre-season with any additional signings and a look at our pre-season results.

August 2024
 

We are now minutes away from kick-off in our first match of the new Hong Kong Second Division season and I can reveal three additional signings we have made as we work to make this team the best it can be. 

Firstly we have Chung Wai Ho, recently of Kowloon City but who also once played for my favourite Hong Kong team, Happy Valley. We actually signed him on as a backup but he looks to be better than our first choice keeper so it could be an interesting battle between our two keepers to see who can claim the number one shirt.

Our first choice attacking central-midfielder from last season, So Loi Keung, retired at the end of the season, his intended long-term replacement, Leung Kam Fai, a player we signed at the start of last season and who had played fifteen times for us in total last season, was poached by Swiss XI, that left us with a distinct lack of talent in this position, to remedy this issue, we brought in Yung Ho on loan from Southern District and Ho Lung Ho on loan from Hong Kong Under 23s.

With Yung Ho having joined the team now and with us already having signed Wan King Yiu earlier in the pre-season period (coupled with our signing of Fu Ka Ho last season), you might think I am just signing players with amusing names, if you think that then you would be correct, though I do believe they have plenty to offer us on the field as well, certainly I would have no concerns throwing any of them into the starting XI for our first game of the season.

After the mass retirements at the end of last season and with the new players we've brought in, I am pleased to see where the media predicts us to finish, despite being promoted into the division only last season, they have us a 1-91 favourites to win the Second Division and move on up to the First Division, I am very hopeful that we can prove them correct, winning the league is going to be the goal and anything less than the runner-up and second promotion spot will be unacceptable.
 

Now that most of our transfer business is complete, save for maybe an unplanned, last minute purchase on deadline day, we can move onto the results of our pre-season friendly matches. As you can see from the choice of teams, I did not put my team up against any serious opponents except for Fu Moon, another team from our league, the rest of the opposition were non-league teams that I knew we would beat easily, the main aim was fitness and morale and smashing a bunch of fruit and veg merchants 10-0 certainly left the boys in a good mood.

Pre-season is now over, my next post is likely to be at some point during the season, most likely at the half-way point but it could be earlier if something interesting comes up.

November 2024

We've reached the halfway point in the second season here in Hong Kong, after gaining promotion from the Third Division to the Second, we were predicted to gain a back-to-back promotion and right now, we are on course to do just that. After thirteen games, we are currently top of the league with a lead of fourteen points over second place Sun Hei.

While we are doing very well in the league right now, our performance in the Junior FA Cup this season has been somewhat disappointing when compared to last year. We managed to beat Tuen Mun in the first round but we were then eliminated by Sai Kung in the second round, a shame considering that we managed to go all the way to the semi-final last time around.
 

Since my previous post, we have done a little extra business just prior to the closure of the transfer window, brining in midfielder/striker Barak Braunshtain and defenders Ng Wa Seng and Kwok Chun Tung. Barak Braunshtain on the surface looks to be a fairly mediocre signing considering we have slightly better options in the first team squad right now, but looking ahead, our loan deal for Yung Ho is due to expire in a couple of games time, at which point, he should find himself in the starting XI more frequently. Ng Wa Seng and Kwok Chun Tung bolster our defence and provide cover for all defensive positions, Ng Wa Seng can play in either full back positions and Kwok Chun Tung is a natural at centre-back, but can also play as a full-back as needed.

Looking ahead it is fairly likely that we will go up, hopefully as champions but as long as we go up, that's all that matters, that said, we certainly have a rather comfortable gap right now but we still need to do a professional job and ensure we can maintain it for the remainder of the season.

The immediate goal is to gain promotion to the First Division and who knows, perhaps the Premier League the year after if we can keep up our momentum for another season, while I would like to stick around to ensure that happens, at the end of the day, I am not being paid for my services and that means, should a team come along that is willing to offer me a paid contact, I would seriously consider it, even if it means leaving this team behind for another at the same level, I think at this point however, I would not drop down a level for paid work, unless the team offering the contract is Happy Valley Athletic, unfortunately last season, they did not manage to gain entry into the Third Division thanks to Lung Moon getting the only available spot upon Tsuen Wan's relegation.