Sport in Macau

Macau residents participate in a wide variety of sports for recreation and competition. Football, basketball, volleyball, Dragon Boat, jogging, swimming, table tennis, and badminton are among the most popular in the community. Local leagues and competitions are organized regularly every year, but owing to Macau's small population (about half a million) professional leagues are financially unfeasible and so most participants are merely local sport enthusiasts.

There are many sport associations and clubs in Macau which frequently organize local or regional sporting events and competitions. Owing to the amateur nature of local sports, all sport associations and clubs in Macau are run by organizations under government subsidies or sponsorships. The Macau Sport Development Board is the department responsible for Macau's sport development, venue operations and organization of major international sport events held in Macau (except the Macau Grand Prix, which is organized by the Macau Grand Prix Committee ).

There are over 50 sport associations in Macau. Their roles and responsibilities include organizing local and regional competitions, youth training, promoting sports to the local community, co-ordinating with the authorities to organize international sporting events and competitions. Under these associations there are hundreds of different sport clubs registered to the authority.

Non-professional leagues are organized for clubs to compete with one another. Leagues such as the football league, the basketball league, the volleyball league, dragon boating and the student leagues of various sports are those which attract the largest number of participants.

In Macau, football is very popular and apart from playing the standard 11-a-side football, there is also another football league which uses smaller artificial pitches (75 × 50 metres) and smaller football (size No. 4, instead of No. 5 in standard football matches). This is mainly due to the lack of standard-size football pitches and it is easier to build and maintain smaller artificial pitches.

Basketball is another popular sport in Macau. The game is generally played under FIBA rules and basketball courts (both outdoor and indoor) are widely available to the public. Non-professional basketball leagues are held each year and players who have decent performance in these leagues are generally selected for the Macau SAR Team.

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