Hull City looking forward to Asia Cup visit to Beijing

LONDON, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Paul Duffen, the Chairman of Hull City soccer club, hopes the China visit will provide the inspiration as his side prepares to embark on the longest trip in its history.

Monday sees the English Premier League side, whose nickname is "The Tigers", fly to Beijing to play in the Asia Cup along with fellow English sides West Ham and Tottenham Hotspurs.

Their first rivals are China's Super League club Beijing Guoan on Wednesday.

It all shows the progress Hull has made. Ten seasons ago, the team was at the bottom of the English fourth division, but now it is preparing to kick off its second season alongside the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea in the Premiership.

Mr. Duffen hopes that the trip to China will be a good sign for the Tigers.

"Next year sees the start of the Chinese year of the Tiger. It would be nice if that was a good omen for us on this trip and for the future," he told Xinhua.

After a brilliant start to the campaign, Hull's form slipped away, but the club survived its first season in the Premiership on a dramatic last day, when despite of a 1-0 defeat to Manchester United, Newcastle and Middlesbrough were relegated along with West Bromwich Albion.

The Hull Chairman believes they have learned from that experience.

"As a club we are a year stronger and a year wiser. We are making progress," he said.

"Traveling to China gives us the chance to play pre-season games against quality opposition. We don't need to do a lot of actual fitness work and training, although there will be some light session, as we have recently got back from a week in the Alps and have been able to spend more time back home working on fitness."

"The Asia cup is a tournament preparation for us. It will give the coach Phil Brown the chance to have a look at some new players and also to try some of them in different roles," he said.

"It is also important because several in our squad, such as Kamil Zayatte and Daniel Cousin didn't have last pre-season with us last year," added the Hull Chairman who picked out some of the players that Chinese fans should keep an eye on.

"We have got a great center back pairing of Michael Turner and Anthony Gardener, who is another player back to full fitness after a good pre-season."

"We also have Geovanni, who is a delightful playmaker and who scored two of the best goals in last season against Arsenal and Tottenham. Of course we have the experience of former Liverpool,

Tottenham and England player Nick Barmby, while Irish international Caleb Folan and Daniel Cousin will lead the line.

"But if there is one thing special about this team, it is that they all work hard for each other and show total commitment. We play as a unit," he said.

However, the Tigers are not just going to China to play two games of soccer as Mr. Duffen explained.

"When we are in China, we won't just be playing football. We have already got trips organized to the Silk and Pearl Markets and to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.

"Not only that, but we will also be visiting some local families for tea and the coach and the players are also going to be holding some training sessions with locals.

"We really hope it is going to be a cultural and sporting exchange in every sense of the word and that everyone is going to gain something from our visit," he explained.

However, with soccer as commercial as it is these days, Hull City look set to reap some financial rewards from such a long trip.

"We are the minnows of the Premier League, but the competition is incredible for raising our profile. All of our games are televised live in over 200 countries and people recognize. Everyone knows us who our players are in places such as Beijing, South Africa and Dubai.

"The way that clubs continue to grow is by widening their commercial base," added Mr. Duffen.

Until winning promotion to the elite at the end of the 2007-2008 season, Hull had the dubious honor of being the biggest city in England never to have had a top-flight soccer club.

The current Chairman puts the turnaround in fortunes to the construction of its KC Communications Stadium, a 25,000 capacity ground built with money raised by a share issue from the local authority.

But he also remembered the work carried out by former Chairman Adam Pearson and coach Peter Taylor, who between them steered the Tigers from the fourth to the second division in just two seasons.

That period saw crowd rise from around 5,000 to the sellouts that now happen every weekend in the KC stadium when the Tigers play.

"It's all down in great part to the foresight of the council in building the stadium."

"As the saying goes 'Build it and they will come.' But it all needed to be managed properly and Adam Pearson and Peter Taylor did a great job, before we moved in. We have had a great time in the last two years and have been able to take an extra step forward," he said.

Finally the man who has seen the city finally complete its dream of Premiership praised the fans, some 500 of whom will follow their heroes to Beijing.

"There has been a lot of hardship in the City of Hull. It was bombed heavily in the second World War and then there were problems with the decline of the fishing industry in the 1970's. People from Hull have been fighting against adversity almost before anyone else in the country had to do so and they are made of strong stuff."

"More than anything, I have enjoyed life with the fans, they really enjoy watching Premier League football," he concluded.

Now the Tigers hope that the people of Beijing can also enjoy watching some Premier League football and that next Chinese New Year -- the Year of the Tiger is a happy one both in China and at the KC Stadium.