Unravelling Hong Kong’s Soccer Competitions

The main soccer competitions recently began their seasons in Hong Kong. Across the next eight months rivalries will be renewed and there are sure to be some close contests, but with it all just warming up we’ll try to unravel football in Hong Kong.
Unravelling Hong Kong’s Soccer Competitions
Yau Yee League Select No. 5 Ghislain Bell blasts the ball past Manchester City’s Elite Development Squad goalkeeper Angus Gunn during their clash in the Hong Kong Football Club International Soccer Sevens in May 2013. (Bill Cox/Epoch Times)
9/25/2013
Updated:
9/25/2013

The main soccer competitions recently began their seasons in Hong Kong. Across the next eight months rivalries will be renewed and there are sure to be some close contests, but with it all just warming up we’ll try to unravel football in Hong Kong.

The major forms of competitive soccer competed for in Hong Kong consist of the four division Hong Kong Football Association leagues and the four division Yau Yee leagues.

Both forms have a promotion and relegation system, which ensures that the better teams are rewarded while helping to keep each division more competitive.

The HKFA, with a team of salaried staff, oversees a professional first division and three other divisions. Teams in those three other divisions are comprised of mainly amateur players, but there are some semi-professional ones.

Meanwhile the Yau Yee league has a volunteer administrative staff overseeing four divisions of twelve teams each consisting of amateur players.

The HKFA league component teams are primarily made up of local players, with limits placed upon the numbers of foreigners that can be utilised by each team. There are also quotas for the numbers of young players that should be fielded by teams in some instances.

The Yau Yee League component teams have no restrictions, or quotas, on the number of permanent residents, residents, nor the ages of the players comprising the team members.

Most of the games involving both sets of leagues take place on the weekends, though most occur on Sunday, particularly on the afternoons.

The HKFA are currently in the process of trying to upgrade their competition through the implementation of the “Project Phoenix” review commissioned by the HK Government by looking at ways to improve the standards of soccer in Hong Kong, improve the facilities and engender greater competition among the competing teams. This had led to an upgrade to facilities, changing rooms and seating at Mongkok Stadium; the replacement of grass pitches by more durable and more easily maintained field turf, or similar all weather LCSD controlled pitches at Kowloon Tsai, Kings Park, Happy Valley and district grounds.

However, there still needs to be a decision on a new government stadium to replace the outdated and under-utilised stadium at So Kon Po, either at the old Kai Tak airport site or elsewhere.

There has also been re-structuring of the various divisions of leagues in the HKFA system. Decisions and reviews are to be made over the qualification for teams in the new franchise system and whether increased funding will be made by the HK Government to improve the competition. Factors include whether the new system can generate increased crowds; whether the teams can become self sufficient; and also whether the system has improved enough to promote the improvement of players for the national team to achieve the objective of moving up the FIFA national teams rankings.

Meanwhile, the Yau Yee League has been operating successfully in the same way for the last number of years and does not appear to require any major overhauls at present. There are issues with regard to pitch availability, but these can generally be overcome.

It’s early days in the season so far, but it already appears that the main contenders in the HKFA first division will be the better funded teams, while the least funded will be the ones fighting to retain their status.

Meanwhile, in the other HKFA divisions and most of the Yau Yee League divisions, the stronger teams from prior years will be those competing to win their leagues this time around. Those relegated from a higher division will be competing to regain their status against the better non-promoted teams from the prior year to gain promotion to the next level.

The HKFA first division started the new season at the end of August, while most of the other HKFA and Yau Yee League divisions kicked off their new seasons on the weekend of Sept 15-16. The season ends mid-May and both leagues then have their cup finals.