Rush the medal! Hong Kong, China men's football team makes history: 14 years of planning development Goal 2034 World Cup
After a 4-0 defeat to Japan men's team, the Hong Kong men's team reached the semifinals of the Asian Games, but still had a chance to compete for the bronze medal, which has already set the team's best record in Asian Games history. After the exit of the Chinese men's football team, the Hong Kong football team has become the representative of Chinese men's football, and their current situation and future have begun to receive more attention.
"Past life": from glory to trough
Football in Hong Kong, China, developed very early, beginning at the end of the 19th century. In 1886, the Hong Kong Football Club, the first football club in Asia, was established; In 1904, the first Chinese football team, Nanhua, was born; In 1908, the first Hong Kong Football League was launched, with a history of more than 110 years. The Chinese team, which is dominated by Hong Kong League players, won 9 consecutive championships in the football tournament of the Far East Games before World War II, and Li Huitang led the team to the top 4 times, and was known as the "Asian King"!
In 1968, the Hong Kong league officially entered the professionalization, and the addition of big foreign aid such as Alihan raised the league level, and the football boom revived on Hong Kong Island. In 1978, Fok Yingdong, then president of the Hong Kong Football Association, founded the annual Provincial Hong Kong Cup, which also allowed mainland fans to learn more about Hong Kong football.
In the 1986 World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese men's football team lost 1-2 to Hong Kong, China in the case of a draw and qualified from the group, and missed the World Cup in Mexico in advance, which was one of the most famous and heavy blows in the history of the national football team. However, in the 1980s, the Hong Kong FA restricted the number of foreign aid and adopted an all-Chinese class policy, which led to a serious decline in the attention of the Hong Kong league.
In 1998, the gambling scandal broke out, and five Hong Kong team players were accused of manipulating the World Cup qualifiers and multiple Hong Kong football league matches, sentenced to prison and banned for life, and Hong Kong football suffered a heavy blow and fell into a trough. After entering the 21st century, the social status of players has also seriously declined, the league is not watched, fewer and fewer people play football, many young players have changed careers, and professional players have to work part-time to make ends meet.
To revitalize the development of football, the Hong Kong government and the FA have made efforts
In order to revitalize the development of Hong Kong football, from 2011 to 2014, the Hong Kong government launched a four-year "Phoenix Plan", allocating 20 million yuan to the Hong Kong FA every year to reform and develop local football. In 2015, the "Five-Year Development Strategic Plan" of "striving for the top and working as one" until 2020 was launched, with an annual allocation of up to 25 million yuan.
The programme covers all aspects, including developing a consistent style of football to improve the level of competition at all levels; Develop course outlines, organize different courses, and improve the level of coaching; Establishment of youth football training schools at the Hong Kong team and club level; encourage more members of the public to participate in football and actively improve the facilities of football venues in Hong Kong; the introduction of more competitive home leagues and cups, including the Super League; Improve player welfare, attract young players to the industry, and more.
In addition, the Hong Kong U23 team also participates in the Hong Kong Super League, which is reminiscent of the Chinese National Olympic Team that plays in the China Second League, and the Hong Kong men's football team participating in the Hangzhou Asian Games has several players from Hong Kong U23. Hong Kong also has competitions such as First Division, Second Division, Third Division, FA Cup, Elite Cup and so on, at least young players have more opportunities to play.
Although the five-year plan was suspended for well-known reasons, the Hong Kong government, the FA and clubs did increase their investment in training young players in cooperation or independently, and the number of people participating in FA training increased from 23,300 in 2010 to 45,800 in 2019, and the football population has undoubtedly increased. According to this year's Jockey Club Youth Development Programme, 40 young players under the U10 age group will be selected on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon for key training, which is also the future plan of Hong Kong football.
Progress and problems in Hong Kong football
With the promotion of policies and the input of all sectors of society, Hong Kong football has made progress to a certain extent.
For the first time in history, the Hong Kong U23 men's team reached the semi-finals of the Asian Games, losing the semi-finals but still having a chance to compete for the team's first medal in history. The Hong Kong men's football team defeated Afghanistan and Cambodia in the qualifiers to reach the finals for the first time in 54 years and will participate in the Asian Cup in January next year; In the East Asian Cup last year, although Hong Kong lost to Japan and South Korea, it was only a 0-1 loss to the Chinese men's football team.
In terms of clubs, Hong Kong Jesse entered the AFC Champions League knockout stage for the first time in its history and advanced to the quarterfinals of the East Asian region; The AFC Cup under the AFC Champions League, Hong Kong Oriental reached the cross-regional semi-finals of the East Asia Division, and so on.
However, looking back at the world ranking of the Hong Kong men's football team, it is currently only 148th in the world and 28th in Asia, which is still down from 143 in 2020! What is the reason for this?
Although the youth training population has increased, the number and quality of professional players have not been significantly improved, and some Hong Kong football industry insiders frankly said: "The number of U10 and U12 is large, but when it comes to the examination age, such as the number of U16, it is very tight, and sometimes even a team is not enough." The problem is the future, now that some players earn only the minimum wage, the players' union has not been established, the salary is low and not guaranteed, how can young people be willing to enter the industry? ”
Former Hong Kong youth team player Fong Pak Lun had to work part-time as a delivery boy. After all, in Hong Kong, China, there are more promising industries and jobs than becoming a professional footballer, so why bother?
The lack of popularity of professional leagues and the poor management of old giants to withdraw from the professional sequence also plague the development of Hong Kong professional leagues. Some local old fans in Hong Kong told the author that the matches of the Hong Kong Super League are too boring, and they would rather watch the live broadcast of the Premier League at home.
In addition, the Hong Kong FA hired foreign experts to train coaches in Hong Kong, the cost is indeed a lot, but the results are not significant, there is still a lack of relatively excellent young coaches, including youth coaches, some insiders suggest that Hong Kong should send local coaches out to learn in advanced football countries, not the other way around.
In short, the young players of the men's football team of the Asian Games in Hong Kong, China have reached the final four, and there are players like An Yongjia who have played well in the Chinese League One, and Lawris and Liang Nuoheng have played in the Chinese Super League; However, in the October squad announced by the Hong Kong men's football team, there are still many veterans in their 30s, including 39-year-old captain Huang Yang, 36-year-old midfielder Ju Yingzhi, 36-year-old defender Ferrando, 37-year-old defender Elio, indicating that the replacement of players still needs to be strengthened.
The new five-year plan is worth looking forward to in the future
Of course, the future of football in Hong Kong, China is still worth looking forward to. In 2020, the Hong Kong FA launched the "Vision 2025 Strategic Plan", which has seven major goals, the first of which is to qualify for the 2034 World Cup, and also divided a specific timetable: the 2024 Asian U16 Championship to enter the semifinals, the 2026 Asian U19 Championship to enter the round of 16, 2030 close to advancing to the Olympic Games, 3032 to the Olympic Games and the World Cup finals.
In order to achieve the goal, the FA is determined to reform the youth training system, hold a super youth league, divided into three age groups: U14, U16 and U18, plus the Jockey Club Youth League, form a more complete youth football training mechanism, and provide 50-1 million self-help for qualified club youth training, venue supporting facilities, coaching, sports science and other support.
After Fok Zhenting's 18-year term, Fok Yingdong's grandson Fok Kai Shan became the new president of the Hong Kong FA, he wrote an admission: "Since winning the gold medal in the East Asian Games in 2009, the development of Hong Kong football seems to have not improved, I hope that this Asian Games can face up to this problem and expect the FA to invest more resources", making it clear that he will continue to vigorously develop Hong Kong football, in addition to continuing to improve "software", he also hopes to explore the establishment of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Football League to open up a new path for the development of Hong Kong football.