Big 3 to miss Hong Kong game, but Man United ‘not trying to cheat fans’, promoter says
Harry Maguire, Andre Onana and Diogo Dalot will fly to meet-and-greet with Apollo Tyres in India after Wednesday’s game in Malaysia
The man behind Manchester United’s tour of Asia has promised some of the club’s biggest stars would play in Hong Kong on Friday, and pushed back at criticism after it was revealed three would miss the game to attend a sponsor’s event in India.
And Paul Kam, chairman of ProEvents, said the Premier League club were “not trying to cheat fans” by sending Harry Maguire, Andre Onana and Diogo Dalot to a meet-and-greet with sponsors Apollo Tyres immediately after Wednesday’s match against Asean All-Stars in Kuala Lumpur.
The rest of Ruben Amorim’s squad fly to Hong Kong on Thursday, and Kam said Bruno Fernandes, Alejandro Garnacho and Casemiro would all play a city select XI, although qualified that by saying it was “the manager’s choice how he uses them, whether they play full matches”.
Some 30,000 tickets have been bought for Friday’s game, and Kam said people were not paying to watch individuals, but the team as a whole. Expecting a full Premier League XI was unrealistic, the promoter said.
“I have never known a team bring more than 25 players, they have brought a much larger squad [32], a first-team squad,” Kam said. “Manchester United are not trying to cheat fans … or me as a promoter.
“I have worked with them for many years and I think they genuinely want to say thank you to the fans here - even with a small window, they want to come to see the fans. It is a rare opportunity for people to see these players.”
It had been reported that a number of United players put their hands up for the India trip to shorten their time away, and be closer to popular footballer holiday destination Dubai.