Hong Kong: a once shiny but now rusty footballing nation

By Jay Lee

Did you know Hong Kong was known as the “Football Kingdom of the Far East” before the 1980s? Previously, Hong Kong had its fair share of football triumphs, such as getting bronze in the 1954 Asian Cup, also being the first ever edition of the tournament. Hong Kong had players that even played for China’s Olympic football team and in big tournaments during the 1950s to 60s. What happened next were rivalries created, namely with China ironically as Hong Kong destroyed China’s hopes of reaching the World Cup in 1986. It seemed like the city was going up a ladder of success. 

Conversely, what came was a downfall by going from 122nd to 141st in the world rankings; thus fewer foreign players and fans were attracted to be a part of football in Hong Kong. 

The leading cause of Hong Kong’s downfall was supply. According to the Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA), the number of professionals in the city playing the sport lowered by half from 2008 to 2018. This numeral decrease was of three reasons - talents became more aware of the low remuneration, short career span, and low career status. 
Usually on the news or in games, I see a lot of foreign players, especially Brazilians. I wonder if this is because of a shortage of players,’ stated one RCHK student.

With the shortage of players, there was also a shortage of other facilities - namely, football pitches. The number of pitches needed in 2019 was 575 according to LEGCO, but there were only 335, most of which were small pitches for unofficial games. 

Unfortunately, the chain of troubles does not end here.  From 2014 to 2019, instead of an expected increase in average viewership per league game in Hong Kong’s top football league, which is supposedly 1071 to a hopeful 2500 spectators, the average dropped to 866. As with any sporting event, attracting sponsorship, broadcasting income and other forms of income that could support the players and facilities dropped due to these expectations not being met.

Another primary element that drove Hong Kong down a landslide was quality.  Although children's participation in three major football programmes by HKFA significantly doubled from 2010 to 2019, a vast majority were short-term or elementary.  This increase was mainly manufactured through an increase in five-a-side futsal training instead, whilst in contrast, the number of youth football (football and futsal are not to be mixed up) participants decreased by over thirty per cent in this period. 

Additionally, a majority of these football pitches are not up to par. One former Under 14 Football player described the pitches he played at in Hong Kong as ‘badly maintained’ as he ‘had to play in a pitch with small rocks and sand in it.’ 

After the announcement of the new league called the Hong Kong Premier League that didn’t really have a significant difference to the old one, five historic clubs of Hong Kong, including Tuen Mun and Sun Hei, decided to relegate themselves voluntarily because of the increased running costs. In 2020, another two top division clubs named Tai Po and Yuen Long even left because of the lack of funds provided, which sheds light on how the government is treating professional football now. The financial problems in professional football in Hong Kong can be seen as a major problem because an under-23 team of locals had to be introduced to sustain the league as nine teams.  

In contrast, Hong Kong has still seen minor glimpses of footballing success in the past years and two decades via the 2009 East Asian Games gold medal. The government has also promised to develop facilities to spread the sport’s attraction to citizens, such as having the Leisure and Cultural Services Department provide twenty one new third-generation artificial pitches in the next five years.  A five-year plan was also introduced until 2025 to provide excessive training resources and facilities for 120 chosen elite talents in major age groups to address the elite football gap. 

After the pandemic, Hong Kong hopefully aims for more success not just in football, but in all ranges of sporting activities, as sporting achievements are something our city lacks.