Chinese football fans told: 'don't underestimate black skin, yellow skin, white skin Hong Kong'

Posters about World Cup qualifiers, though intended to be light-hearted, might be seen as racist by HK fans

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Hong Kong's 'diverse' squad of 'black skin, yellow skin and white skin people' in training on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 11:04am, 9 Jun 2015Updated: 9:42am, 10 Jun 2015

The Chinese FA has warned its team’s fans not to underestimate Hong Kong in upcoming World Cup qualifiers, pointing out that HK’s team has “black skin, yellow skin and white skin people”, and that “playing a team with such diverse background, you’d better be prepared”.

The message, in a poster released on the CFA’s official weibo, might be seen as strange, even racist, by Hong Kong players such as Jaimes McKee or Christian Annan, born in England and Ghana respectively.

The CFA said on their weixin page that they were highlighting Hong Kong's cosmopolitan nature, and that the "open and inclusive" city had made the team an "international brigade". They also mentioned two painful previous meetings, when Hong Kong ended China's World Cup qualification campaigns for the1986 and 2006 World Cups.

The Hong Kong Football Association (right) posted its response to its Chinese counterpart on Facebook. Photos: SCMP Pictures

The Hong Kong Football Association put out their own poster apparently in response on the Facebook page to which HKFA.com links to.

It says

"Don't let other people look down (on you)

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