TibbsyBear
Well-Known Member
EDIT!! - Can Admin please change from Rasngers to Rangers @Empire @mdingwall @sherbrook_loyal
A few weeks ago I decided to start a small research project - “Rangers All over The World.” This was basically started to track down all the clubs across the globe with the name ‘Rangers’ in their title and then find out which clubs had links to our own club whether it be officially or unofficially. Part 1 is below. I’ve decided to start with Hong Kong Rangers as they are one of the better known ‘other Rangers’ with ties to our own club.
There isn’t a vast amount of information online about Ian Petrie so if any Bears on here knew of him or knew him personally, please feel free to contribute with more information.
It would also be interesting to find out what the thoughts of the times were about guys like Willie Henderson, Alex Willoughby and Jim Forrest moving over there, although I do appreciate coverage at the time would have been limited.
Interestingly, the country with the most other “Rangers” is England and with the large volume of teams I think these will take the longest to research. If anyone has any prior knowledge of these teams and links to our own, please feel free to PM me.
Enjoy!
Rangers All Around the World | Part 1 | Hong Kong Rangers Football Club, Hong Kong
Full Name: (Hong Kong Rangers Football Club)
Founded: (1958 as Rangers Football Team. 1960 as Hong Kong Rangers FC)
Stadium: (Sham Shui PoSports Ground) Capacity: (2,194)
Notable Former Players: (George Best, Willie Henderson, Alex Willoughby, Billy Semple, Jim Forrest)
Hong Kong Rangers Football Club compete in the Hong Kong Premier League. They have won the Hong Kong First Division once, the Senior Shield four times, and the Hong Kong FA Cup twice.
Hong Kong Rangers was established by a Scottish expatriate named Ian Petrie, who named the club after his beloved Glasgow Rangers. Thus, any fans of the Scotland based club have an excellent excuse to follow their Asian counterparts.
The club was initially founded in 1958 and were one of the first clubs in Asia to bring foreign players into the league in the 1970’s, which coincidentally was the era when they won their one and only league title to date, in the 1970-71 season. Hong Kong Rangers were also the first Asian football club to implement a modern football club managing system.
In the early days, the club could not compete with the bigger clubs financially. So Petrie relied on youth players and the team was known as a breeding ground for exciting young players. Kwok Ka Ming was the best known players discovered by Petrie in the 1960s.
In 1970, the club brought three Scottish professional players to Hong Kong. They were the first European professional players to play in the Hong Kong League, opening a new chapter in Hong Kong's football history.
Great players such as Ian Taylor, Joe Brennan, Jimmy Liddell, and Derek Currie were a few to name. More were to follow in the 1980s such as Steve Paterson, Jimmy Bone and Tommy Nolan.
The legendary George Best even played for them in the 1980’s, albeit making only one appearance. The club has also helped to develop youth players since its inception, and there are many fine examples of players who have played key roles in Hong Kong’s footballing history, such as Kwok Ka Ming who managed the national team and guided them to a famous 2-1 win over China PR in Beijing.
HKRFC’s last success came in the 1994-95 season when they lifted the FA Cup, which allowed them to compete in the Asian Cup the following year. They finished 7th out of 9 teams in the inaugural Premier League season, and escaped relegation on the final day of the 2015/16 season by beating Pegasus 3:2.
Last year they secured a 7th place finish but with some notable scalps along the way, including a 4:2 away win over South China.
Further Information:
Below is an excerpt of former Manchester United player Steve Paterson’s time in Hong Kong - (Confessions of a Highland Hero - Steve ‘Pele’ Paterson)
Further Information:
Below is an obituary for Ian Petrie posted by the Hong Kong Football Association in 2006
Further Information:
Below is an excerpt from a 2006 Fox Sport Asia article entitled - “Europe to Asia: New lease of life or elephant’s graveyard?
Information Source: www.offside.hk, www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Rangers_FC
*(Confessions of a Highland Hero - Steve ‘Pele’ Paterson)
www.hkfa.com, www.foxsportasia.com
A few weeks ago I decided to start a small research project - “Rangers All over The World.” This was basically started to track down all the clubs across the globe with the name ‘Rangers’ in their title and then find out which clubs had links to our own club whether it be officially or unofficially. Part 1 is below. I’ve decided to start with Hong Kong Rangers as they are one of the better known ‘other Rangers’ with ties to our own club.
There isn’t a vast amount of information online about Ian Petrie so if any Bears on here knew of him or knew him personally, please feel free to contribute with more information.
It would also be interesting to find out what the thoughts of the times were about guys like Willie Henderson, Alex Willoughby and Jim Forrest moving over there, although I do appreciate coverage at the time would have been limited.
Interestingly, the country with the most other “Rangers” is England and with the large volume of teams I think these will take the longest to research. If anyone has any prior knowledge of these teams and links to our own, please feel free to PM me.
Enjoy!
Rangers All Around the World | Part 1 | Hong Kong Rangers Football Club, Hong Kong
Full Name: (Hong Kong Rangers Football Club)
Founded: (1958 as Rangers Football Team. 1960 as Hong Kong Rangers FC)
Stadium: (Sham Shui PoSports Ground) Capacity: (2,194)
Notable Former Players: (George Best, Willie Henderson, Alex Willoughby, Billy Semple, Jim Forrest)
Hong Kong Rangers Football Club compete in the Hong Kong Premier League. They have won the Hong Kong First Division once, the Senior Shield four times, and the Hong Kong FA Cup twice.
Hong Kong Rangers was established by a Scottish expatriate named Ian Petrie, who named the club after his beloved Glasgow Rangers. Thus, any fans of the Scotland based club have an excellent excuse to follow their Asian counterparts.
The club was initially founded in 1958 and were one of the first clubs in Asia to bring foreign players into the league in the 1970’s, which coincidentally was the era when they won their one and only league title to date, in the 1970-71 season. Hong Kong Rangers were also the first Asian football club to implement a modern football club managing system.
In the early days, the club could not compete with the bigger clubs financially. So Petrie relied on youth players and the team was known as a breeding ground for exciting young players. Kwok Ka Ming was the best known players discovered by Petrie in the 1960s.
In 1970, the club brought three Scottish professional players to Hong Kong. They were the first European professional players to play in the Hong Kong League, opening a new chapter in Hong Kong's football history.
Great players such as Ian Taylor, Joe Brennan, Jimmy Liddell, and Derek Currie were a few to name. More were to follow in the 1980s such as Steve Paterson, Jimmy Bone and Tommy Nolan.
The legendary George Best even played for them in the 1980’s, albeit making only one appearance. The club has also helped to develop youth players since its inception, and there are many fine examples of players who have played key roles in Hong Kong’s footballing history, such as Kwok Ka Ming who managed the national team and guided them to a famous 2-1 win over China PR in Beijing.
HKRFC’s last success came in the 1994-95 season when they lifted the FA Cup, which allowed them to compete in the Asian Cup the following year. They finished 7th out of 9 teams in the inaugural Premier League season, and escaped relegation on the final day of the 2015/16 season by beating Pegasus 3:2.
Last year they secured a 7th place finish but with some notable scalps along the way, including a 4:2 away win over South China.
Further Information:
Below is an excerpt of former Manchester United player Steve Paterson’s time in Hong Kong - (Confessions of a Highland Hero - Steve ‘Pele’ Paterson)
“Not long into my spell with Nairn Country I was contacted by an agent looking for young players to try their luck with a club in the Far East. At that time Hong Kong was a destination for many UK players who had either entered the twilight phase of their careers or others who didn’t make it with professional clubs but could earn a very good tax-free living and enjoy a pleasant lifestyle in what was then a British colony.
I joined Hong Kong Rangers in February 1982. The club had been founded 24 years earlier a Scot, Ian Petrie, who named the side after Glasgow Rangers, the team he had followed in his homeland. I was one a number of Scottish players looking to keep their careers going a little longer by performing in a sub-standard football league. Previous Hong Kong Rangers players, like Willie Henderson, Jim Forrest and Billy Semple – formerly top dogs at Ibrox – had eventually ended their sporting lives there.
Six of us shared a flat; John Watson, later to return to Scotland to play for Dunfermline; Danny Rose, Tom Nolan, Ian Murdoch, Paul Rogers and me.
The team had to include five players from Hong Kong with the remaining members of the squad being made up of Europeans, many of them Dutch. We used to train at six in the morning before the sun was too hot. We lived hard and trained hard and sometimes straight from whatever nightclub we had been drinking in back to a training ground we often shared with the rats that hadn’t made it back to the sewers before our arrival.
The wages were nothing to boast about but they were enough for us to live well and have a good time. Of course, for me, a good time included betting, and when someone in our group suggested we should take a trip to the gambling resort of Macau, I couldn’t wait. Off we went to the oriental Las Vegas, and I was certain as I had always been before embarking on a binge of bets on the roulette wheel or blackjack tables that I would return with a fistful of dollars.”
Further Information:
Below is an obituary for Ian Petrie posted by the Hong Kong Football Association in 2006
“Mr. Ian Petrie (1932-2006) has passed away in England on 23 February. Mr. Petrie was once Vice Chairman of the HKFA. Mr. Petrie started Rangers FC in 1959.
He was also pioneer of introducing European players in local league in 1970. Mr. Petrie is also remembered by his devotion in nurturing youth players and a number of outstanding local players were brought up by him over the years.
His contribution to local football development would be well recognized. The Association expressed the deepest condolence to his pass away.”
Further Information:
Below is an excerpt from a 2006 Fox Sport Asia article entitled - “Europe to Asia: New lease of life or elephant’s graveyard?
“This diaspora can be traced back to the colonial heyday of Hong Kong. Instigated by Glaswegian expat Ian Petrie and three fellow Scotsmen landed at the now closed Kai Tak Airport in September 1970.
They were Derek Currie, Jackie Trainer and Walter “Water Buffalo” Gerrard. These men had all made names from themselves back in Britain. By answering Petrie’s call for recruits to join his Hong Kong Rangers outfit, the three Scots became the first professionals to play in Asia.
Over their distinguished careers, they established legendary status. Gerrard scored 37 goals in his debut season and in 1978 Currie became the first professional to represent the Hong Kong national side.
Gerrard also went down in local lore for his wit. When playing against Brazilian club Santos, Gerrard was substituted at the same time as Pelé (yes, that Pelé). As they walked off the field, Gerrard put his arm around the three-time World Cup winner and said: “Pelé, these coaches don’t know a good footballer when they see one.”
Playing in front of crowds of 30,000, these three Scots paved the way for top names to pack their bags and travel to the Orient. Ironically, these new waves (rather ripples) of players arrived in Asia in the twilight years of their careers.”
Information Source: www.offside.hk, www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Rangers_FC
*(Confessions of a Highland Hero - Steve ‘Pele’ Paterson)
www.hkfa.com, www.foxsportasia.com
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