Hong Kong in the frame to host the championship finals and the Leoni’s matches | Union Rugby

Hong Kong emerged as a candidate to stage the finals of the Future Nations Championship in his new Kai Tak Sports Park and would be an ideal stop for British and Irish lions, according to a senior World Rugby executive.

The finals of the inaugural championship of nations – the biennial playoffs among the main international teams in the world – will be held London in 2026 with Qatar lined up for 2028 But the Hong Kong stadium is an increasingly popular suggestion for subsequent editions.

The stadium hosted its first international sporting event last weekend by organizing Hong Kong Sevens, transferring the famous tournament to the website of the former Kowloon airport which now hosts the Cathay Pacific Sponfonord Sports Park. Transforming the site, which hosts the 50,000 -seater stadium, an internal arena of 10,000 capabilities and an athletics and field headquarters, costs £ 3 billion.

On Monday it was confirmed that in July, Tottenham will play Arsenal at the Kai Tak Stadium in the first derby north of London organized outside the United Kingdom, while Liverpool will also be in action against Milan.

At Baxter, a former Australian support under Eddie Jones who became an architect and one of the brains behind the Hong Kong stadium, said it would be the “perfect place” and that the city was “really enthusiastic” to host the finals of the nations championship.

In the meantime, the British and Irish Lions are looking for a heating game on the road to New Zealand in 2029. The lions played Hong Kong in 2013, facing against barbarisms, while Australia played in New Zealand in two games of the Bledisloe Cup in 2008.

When asked if Hong Kong was an option for Lions in the future, Alan Gilpin, CEO of World Rugby, said: “Surely. The beauty of this is when the Lions came from here, it would have been 2013 on the road to Australia. It was so hot. Nobody could keep the ball, it was like a soapbar. Now if the roof was closed, it would have been a brilliant mirror.

The Kai Tak Stadium can also offer a clue on how the renovation of £ 663 million twickenham might appear. Poplous has been signed by Rugby Football Union for his masterplan of the stadium with the work he should start in 2027.

In Hong Kong, the decision to move from the old stadium to the Bay of Causeway was made, while with Twickenham – unless the threat a little empty to move to Milton Keynes, the redevelopment is on the agenda. The architects of the new Wembley stadium were populous and can also list the Tottenham hotspur stadium, the London 2012 stadium, the sphere of Las Vegas, the Aviva and the Principality Stadium.

“We did hundreds of these types of buildings,” says Richard Breslin, colleague director of Baxter di Popoloso. “There is no single bowl, there is not only one location that is the same. They must be completely different. Even in a big city like this OA London or in one of the main cities, it is not a large amorphous stain. You have small villages, so you are really trying to collect on that and try to understand it and try to respect that too.”

Gerard Meagher’s journey to Hong Kong was provided by Cathay Pacific, Sponsor of the Hong Kong Sevens.