Sporting chance is one to take carefully
- The holding of an important regional football competition would help restore Hong Kong’s positive and safe image, but residents must be assured that players and officials will abide by coronavirus rules
Hong Kong’s sporting footprint is not large, especially without the World Rugby Sevens and local football during the pandemic. This only seems to increase the appetite for sporting fare.
The proposal for Hong Kong to create a sporting bubble that would enable it to host an important regional football competition is therefore exciting. It would help restore the city’s positive and safe image amid much negative publicity in recent times.
But it does raise tricky issues, apart from the uncertainties created by a new cluster of cases.
Travel restrictions, quarantine and social distancing have disrupted international and domestic sport. Special arrangements for certain events naturally arouse envy in places denied their usual diet of sport, the most notable example being the recent Australian Open tennis tournament.
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Coronavirus outbreak forces Hong Kong Rugby Sevens to be postponed
Global audiences watched as players flown in by special chartered flights, pampered in hotel quarantine and transported under tight security, competed in front of big crowds. Such privilege has also aroused extreme annoyance among ordinary people denied equal treatment in getting back to their own countries.
Not surprisingly, this sentiment has surfaced in reaction to the bid by the Hong Kong Football Association to host two groups in this season’s elite AFC Champions League and second tier AFC Cup, both involving local teams. Government sources also told the Post that they backed the plan, which would see five visiting teams and more than 300 players and staff allowed into the city.
One Post reader described the idea of allowing so many overseas players and officials to enter the city without mandatory hotel quarantine, or isolation under “sports bubble” protocols, as a slap in the face for Hongkongers.
Hong Kong prepares ‘sports bubble’ in bid to host international football
This was especially so when many residents waiting to return home faced flight bans or could not afford quarantine, or did not wish to be confined for so long. This reaction is understandable. But the idea retains some appeal.
It is never the right time to lower our guard against the coronavirus. But it is important to fight back, together.
One way to do it is to show that if we can set the rules and compel compliance regardless of global player reputations – as the Australian tennis authorities did – sport can stillplay a positive role.
