Pre-seasonBilly Hogan: It's great to be back in Singapore for a busy and important week
Liverpool FC chief executive officer Billy Hogan is looking forward to an exciting and important week for the club in Singapore.
The Reds have returned to this particular part of south-east Asia for the second consecutive summer, as preparations for 2023-24 continue with fixtures against Leicester City and Bayern Munich.
Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com from an LFC Foundation soccer clinic, hosted at a local school and in conjunction with the Special Olympics Asia Pacific, Hogan detailed the wide range of LFC activities planned during the visit. Read on for our full interview…
Billy, the pre-season tour of Singapore is under way, so tell us how much you're looking forward to it...
First off, I guess, it's great to be back. Obviously we had a terrific week in Asia last summer in Thailand and then finished in Singapore. The reception was incredible. It's terrific to be here and actually a pretty easy decision to come back. The facilities are terrific, the training facilities are top notch and obviously the National Stadium is a great facility as well. From a pre-season preparation standpoint, it's a great and easy decision to come back to Singapore. It's always great to come out on the pre-season tour. As we've said in the past, it's our opportunity to bring the club to our supporters who probably don't have the chance to get to Anfield, so it's a chance for them to see the club up close and personal.
Just how important is this trip for the club itself and our global fans?
Make no mistake, pre-season is obviously about getting ready for the season. As I said, that preparation piece is incredibly important, hence the discussion around the facilities. But a lot of what we do particularly on tour is about what happens off the pitch. So, activities like we're at tonight with the foundation and the Special Olympics and our ability to bring the team out to our fanbase here. From a regional perspective, there are literally hundreds of millions of fans in Asia that are fans of the club. LFC is the most popular team in Singapore, almost a million fans that we have here in Singapore, which is just phenomenal.
It's a really important opportunity. We don't get a lot of chances to take the team on a global basis, so it is an important time for us. In addition to that, I would also say for our corporate partners. This is a major headquarters for Standard Chartered. When we were here last summer, we announced an extension with them and they've been on the shirt front since 2010 and will be through 2026-27. Again, the community aspect of what we do when we're here on the ground is also incredibly important. A busy week but it's a lot of fun.
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We only landed a few hours ago but we're already out here in the local community with LFC Foundation at a soccer clinic for children. Tell us why these events in the community are so important while we're here…
As you said, we just landed a couple of hours ago, we're all talking a little bit of jet lag but we're getting out and we're moving around, which is good for us. Really important. Obviously we come out and play matches – the team needs to train, it needs to prep – but it's really important that, as a club, we engage on the ground. That's something that fundamentally we believe in – not just come in, play the game and leave again. We do that in a number of different ways.
The community events that we're doing tonight is the first of many. We'll be doing soccer clinics with the LFC Foundation all week. Tonight is a special one with the Special Olympics, who we've worked with in multiple markets in the past. And then a number of different fan engagement events, so we've got the open training tomorrow night where fans get the chance to see the team train before the Leicester match. And then a number of different interactions with our former players, we've brought a number with us – Martin Skrtel, Lucas Leiva, Ian Rush, Gary McAllister. Then a number of our corporate partners – Standard Chartered, Nike, AXA, Expedia – all activating and putting on events for fans. As I said, a busy week but an important one for us.
Just on the pitch, we're here for the 'Festival of Football' with those games against Leicester and Bayern...
Obviously we've had two matches thus far and a great training camp in Germany for the squad, and now an opportunity to maybe take it up a bit with the Leicester match on Sunday and then obviously a great tilt against Bayern on Wednesday night, so looking forward to both. We had a great experience here last year against Crystal Palace and we're looking forward to another two big nights here in Singapore.
Finally, there was confirmation yesterday that Jordan Henderson left the club after 12 years of service. Can you assess his contribution to the club in that time?
I actually arrived at the club in 2012, so it'll be a bit odd not having Jordan in the squad. He's been somebody that I've watched in his career grow from a player trying to make his mark and trying to get into the squad when he first arrived, and then an integral part of the team and obviously most recently captain, has had the opportunity to lift pretty much every trophy we possibly could have during that period. So, absolute club legend and a great leader of the club. He'll be sorely missed.
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