Football

Real Madrid supremo Florentino Perez apologised here Thursday after the Spanish giants committed yet another public-relations blunder on the Hong Kong leg of their gaffe-prone Asia tour.

and disillusioned."

Real looked to be in danger of compounding their gaffe on Thursday, when they kept a crowd of around 20,000 fans waiting in boiling sunshine before finally starting training more than one hour later than scheduled.

Local TV reports said the superstars only made it back to their hote at 3am after their night on the town.

wildly at every touch.

Beckham, Ronaldo, skipper Raul and French star Zinedine Zidane later met 30 children who were orphaned by the outbreak of the killer SARS virus earlier this year.

Real, who have been reportedly paid around 20 million Hong Kong dollars (2.5 million US) to appear here, play a Hong Kong select side bolstered by a handful of Chinese

David Beckham and his superstar team-mates had left around 1,000 fans disappointed after skipping a public training session Wednesday following their arrival in the former British colony.

The club said its players had been too tired to train - but just hours later pictures of Beckham, Ronaldo and team-mates enjoying a late night out at the Dragon-i nightclub were plastered all over Hong Kong's papers, with several contrasting Real's conduct with that of Chinese NBA star Yao Ming.

Yao, who played in an exhibition match at the Hong Kong Coliseum on Wednesday, received widespread praise for his conduct during a flying visit to the territory.

"Yao wins hearts as Beckham parties," a front-page headline in the English-language South China Morning Post daily read.

"NBA star Yao Ming dunked ... while Real Madrid flunked," the paper commented, saying Real's no-show at Wednesday's training session had left fans "hot, bothered

Perez apologised for what he described as a "miscommunication", the latest of several to have put noses out of joint during Real's money-spinning Asian jaunt.

"I would like to apologise for any

offence caused to the people of Hong Kong and our fans," Perez said at a press conference.

"We believed that we had only planned an indoor training session at the hotel, and we were not ready for training at the stadium," said the Real president. "Once again we apologise."

But all appeared to be forgiven when the squad trained in front of around 28,000 spectators at the Hong Kong Stadium.

Fans who had been let in free to attend cheered and applauded

internationals on Friday night.

The match at the 40,000-capacity Hong Kong Stadium sold out within hours of tickets going on sale last week, with some fans camping out days in advance to pay for tickets priced between 500 and 1,500 Hong Kong dollars.

But their four match tour -- which ends in Bangkok against Thailand on Sunday -- has been bedevilled by PR problems from the outset.

During a week-long training camp in Kunming, southwest China, players astounded officials by skipping a banquet given in their honour, before cancelling two training sessions.

Marketing officials have said the club will pocket eight million euros (9.1 million dollars) from the jaunt.

Last week, Asian Football Confederation chief Peter Velappan described Real Madrid as "bloodsuckers" and "mercenaries," accusing them of demanding three times more than other clubs in appearance fees.

The Real Madrid Hong Kong match will be televised live on TEN Sports channel from 5:30 BST