Hong Kong’s all-African refugee soccer team helps players tackle problems off the pitch, despite hostility and racism on the field
All Black FC were created to help refugees and asylum seekers integrate into the community; now they’re also reaching out to change local perceptions of black people to combat lack of fairness and respect both on and off the pitch
Many foreigners after spending seven years in Hong Kong apply for permanent residency. Bidjoua Eustache-Hauvelith, meanwhile, is still waiting for his application for asylum to be processed. The Democratic Republic of Congo native is living in “a prison without walls”, he says with palpable exasperation. He has freedom of movement in the city, but his life is going nowhere.
So Eustache-Hauvelith finds sanctuary on the soccer pitch, where he coaches All Black FC, Hong Kong’s first and only all-African soccer team for refugees. It’s where he and other enthusiasts of the sport from across the continent find a connection with home and a little hope to keep them motivated.
Eustache-Hauvelith, a former member of the Congo national soccer team, formed All Black FC in May last year with Medard-Privat Koya, who is from the Central African Republic.
Koya moved to Hong Kong in 2012 after meeting the local Chinese woman who would become his wife at a Christian conference in the city. Once here, he took a coaching job at the Chelsea FC Soccer School. As he got to know the city, Koya discovered that there were many fellow Africans seeking refuge here who are rejected by the community due to racial and systematic discrimination.
He says he started All Black FC with Eustache-Hauvelith in the hope of helping them integrate into the community.
“Even though I have the right to work … it’s still not easy for me to be part of Hong Kong society. For them, it must be very, very hard,” Koya says. “This is what really drives me. I need to try my best, even if I can’t find a solution to the problem.”