bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Tim Maitland

A few days beyond her 80th birthday Dr Veronica Chan Yiu-kam MBE is a maelstrom - a storm of energy, passion and bloody-minded change-the-world determination that would shame a teenager. She is also the reason why the Women's World Cup kicked off this morning (Hong Kong time) with the strongest raft of Asian teams ever assembled.

'We call her the mother of Asian women's football,' declared Peter Velappan, the general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and one of the few people on the continent whose involvement stretches almost as far back as Chan's. 'She was so influential and dynamic. She's dedicated her life to Hong Kong football and to women's football. Her passion for football has never wavered.'

That dedication has its roots in an infancy that began in Hong Kong  in the early 1920s when Chan was bitten by the bug. 'When I was a kid I always played with my six brothers - never with my sisters. I loved football. I didn't like dolls,' she stated, as if that alone was enough to explain a lifetime spent investing every cent, every minute of time and every ounce of energy in the sport. 'All my brothers were keen footballers and very famous when they were young,' she added with pride.

A marriage to Dr Bertcham Chiu But-york, who died in 1998, united two families of property - 'he was land, we were housing' - combining a husband and wife team with enough enthusiasm and wealth to make a difference. In the 1960s they were backing a string of First Division sides in the Hong Kong league including Rangers, Caroline Hill and the 1968 Senior Shield winning Yuen Long side, when Malaysia asked her to create a women's team. After training for 20 days Hong Kong's first ladies national team made their bow, losing three matches in a week to the visiting Malaysians (6-0, 1-0, 1-0 for the statistic freaks).

By 1965 Chan had formed the Hong Kong Ladies Football Association, in 1968 she was in at ground level when the Asian Ladies Football Confederation came into existence. A year later she was president and would remain at the helm for the next 33 years, overseeing its amalgamation into the AFC in 1986, until she stepped down as chairperson of the women's committee last year.

During that time she spent a fortune, literally, creating and funding the Asian Women's Championship, hosting the first tournament in Hong Kong in 1975 and three others, and bankrolling every edition until 1991 out of her own pocket. 'It cost me about $30 million at least. The whole world knows me for this. I think I'm a crazy woman,' she said, shaking her head and smiling. 'I can't understand how I've done it. Crazy, crazy, an old woman like me.'

How might remain a mystery, but what  Chan has achieved in her lifetime is on display in the US for the next three weeks. Asia might not possess a team capable of matching China's run to the final in 1999, but the continent still has four sides - the Steel Roses, North Korea, Japan and South Korea - all ranked in the top 30 in the world and all worthy of respect from the  other top teams. And they are very much Chan's babies. 'I brought them up. I pushed them up to where they are now. I take all the women's players as my children. I love them very much.  We see them every two years at the Asian Championships and have done from the first to the 14th.'

But the teams are only the most obvious display of Chan's efforts. Behind the scenes she has inspired generation after generation of administrators such as Cristina Ramos, the daughter of the former president of the Philippines Fidel Ramos, who Chan took under her wing as a teenager and who is part of FIFA's organising committee at the World Cup.

'I learned a lot from her and in a lot of ways she inspired me. I didn't realise what an uphill climb it would be, but she showed me that if you believe enough in women's football you can get it up there,' Cristina Ramos explained shortly before departing for the US. 'I really admire her for what she represented. She was doing it at a time when women's sport was not acceptable, especially in the more 'masculine' sports.

'For example now we have women's bodybuilding and women's boxing, but at the time women just didn't play football. People were saying, 'Ha, ha women don't play football' and 'Women look like clowns when they play football', even in 1985.

'Twenty years down the line we've still got top teams and because of Veronica's help we've been able to maintain that competitive edge, but I'd like to think it has been a gradual process and that Veronica has shown an example to the women's football community. Hopefully that will be maintained for a long time to come.'

Chan, however, wastes no time on the blatant sexism and male chauvinism that was, and still is, the bane of her life. Of course, to use the old analogy, you don't make an omelette without cracking eggs and Chan has definitely broken a few shells on her way.

A member of the Hong Kong Football Association's executive committee since 1973 and a vice-president for 20 of those years, she sparked a rebellion among the First Division men's teams in the mid-90s for her 'dictatorial' style.

Even now she gives the impression that she can be an implacable foe, but then there are legions willing to give evidence that she also makes an admirable friend and ally. 'She's very caring. She has a mother's heart. She's everything you look for in a friend,' Velappan insists.

'I can't think of anyone who can rival her for her contribution to Asian football. She was the mother of the women's game. She laid the foundations. Her life is football. This has been a prolonged period of commitment to football. She has always been there. She will be recognised next year during our 50th anniversary celebrations. She will be recognised for her services to Asian football.'

Such honours make little impression - Chan doesn't even remember correctly when she was awarded the MBE - although she does claim that her honour, made on New Year's Day in 1994, is the only such gong for services to women's football. 'I'm only here to serve, not to take. I'm happy. I've enjoyed it. I've got satisfaction. Just enjoying it has made me happy. That's all.'

Except that's not the end of the story, because a few days beyond her 80th birthday  Chan  is a maelstrom. She is currently putting together the financial calculations to see whether it is viable for Hong Kong to host its fifth Asian Women's Championship in 2005 and she still hasn't exhausted her ambitions for the SAR's female national team.

'My aim is for Hong Kong to push up into the top 20, but I wish for a long life otherwise I might not have enough time,' she declares.  'I've never got sick of football. It'll be non-stop until my last breath. Women's activities still aren't successful. I can't stop. It's non-stop. Everything is non-stop.  I'm still interested. It's in my blood. Look, all football, football, football.'



A labour of love

Jackie Chan