Lunar New Year Cup

The Lunar New Year Cup, also known as the Carlsberg Challenge or the Carlsberg Cup before, is an annual football tournament organised in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Football Association, established on 1948. It is usually held on the first and the fourth day of the Chinese New Year as a part of celebration. The tournament is called Carlsberg Cup between 1983 and 2006 because Carlsberg was the major sponsor of the event.

Since the 2007 edition of the event, the competition is officially known as Lunar New Year Cup according to the Hong Kong Football Association. This is because Carlsberg is no longer the major sponsor but a mere co-sponsor.

Early-Period

In the period before and around WWII, Lunar New Year Cup was participated by Hong Kong teams and teams from mainland China. Since 1950, HKFA invited at least one overseas team to enter the competition. Before 1982, there were 3 exhibition matches in the tournament. The first two matches were usually participated by Hong Kong national football team, Hong Kong player team and Hong Kong League XI while Chinese XI played the last match.

International Competition

In 1983, it was the first time to have a main sponsorship for the competition and the invited team number increased to three. From 1993 onwards, national teams rather than club teams were invited to participate in the competition.

Results

Year	Final			Third place match
	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place
1983	Hong Kong League XI	2–0	Hallelujah	AGF	3–1	Peking
1984	FK Partizan	1–0	Hong Kong League XI		2–1
1985		1–0			unknown
1986	Paraguay	[1]	South Korea	Hong Kong
1987	Brøndby IF	2 - 0	Hong Kong	Beijing	1 - 0	Shanghai
1988	Hong Kong League XI	Unknown	AGF	Lucky-Goldstar Hwnagso	3 - 0	Dalian Shide F.C.
1989	Malmö FF	(Four-team Round-robin tournament)	China PR	Hong Kong		Odense BK
1990	Sparta Prague	2 - 0	China PR	Spartak Moscow	4 - 1	Hong Kong League XI
1991	Hong Kong League XI	3 - 1	Aston Villa	FC Dynamo Moscow	2 - 0	Thailand
1992	Hong Kong League XI	2 - 2 3 - 2 pen	FK Partizan	Steaua Bucureşti	2 - 0	BSC Young Boys Bern
1993	Switzerland	3 - 2	Hong Kong League XI	Denmark U-21	2 - 1	Japan
1994	Denmark	2 - 0	Hong Kong League XI	Romania	2 - 1	United States
1995	Yugoslavia	1 - 0	South Korea U-21	Colombia	3 - 1	Hong Kong League XI
1996	Sweden	1 - 1 5 - 4 pen	Japan	Poland	1 - 0	Hong Kong League XI
1997	Russia	2 - 1	Switzerland	Yugoslavia	3 - 1	Hong Kong League XI
1998 Details	Nigeria	2 - 0	Hong Kong League XI	Iran	1 - 1 4 - 2 pen	Chile
1999 Details	Mexico	3 - 0	Egypt	Bulgaria	3 - 0	Hong Kong League XI
2000 Details	Czech Republic	2 - 1	Mexico	Japan	0 - 0 6 - 5 pen	Hong Kong League XI
2001	Norway	2 - 1	Hong Kong League XI	South Korea	1 - 1 6 - 5 pen	Paraguay
2002	Honduras	1–0	Hong Kong League XI	Slovenia	0–0 (4–3) pen	China PR
2003	Uruguay	1–1 (4–2) pen	Iran	Denmark	2–1	Hong Kong League XI
2004	Norway	3–1	Honduras	Sweden	3–0	Hong Kong League XI
2005	Brazil	7–1	Hong Kong	[2]
2006	Denmark	3–1	South Korea	Croatia	4–0	Hong Kong
2007	Jamaica Olympic Team	0–0 (5–4) pen	China Olympic Team	Australia Olympic Team	2–2 (5–3) pen	Hong Kong League XI
2008	Hong Kong League XI	2–1	HNK Hajduk Split	Peñarol	1–1 (5–4) pen	Ulsan Hyundai
2009	South China Pegasus Team	2–1	Sparta Prague	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	0–0 (5–4) pen	Hong Kong League XI
2010	Pohang Steelers	(Round-robin tournament)	Kitchee	Pegasus Invitation Team
2011	Tianjin Teda	0–0 (5–3) pen	Guangzhou Evergrande	Ulsan Hyundai	4–2	South China

References

1. ^ Round-robin tournament
2. ^ 2 teams only.

• Lunar New Year Cup results] RSSSF
• HKFA Website 漫談賀歲足球賽事(一) (in chinese)