Hong Kong gamers forced to withdraw from AFC eAsian Cup after organisers fail to get team’s name right
- Officials say matter went unresolved despite days of negotiations, leaving them no choice but to withdraw
- Decision based on guidelines issued after several national anthem blunders involving Hong Kong teams in 2022
Hong Kong’s gamers have been forced to withdraw from the AFC eAsian Cup in Qatar on the day the competition was expected to start, because organisers could not display the team’s full name correctly.
According to a statement from the city’s football association, days of negotiations to get ‘Hong Kong, China’ on the screen, rather than just Hong Kong, failed to resolve the issue.
How anthem blunders are being tackled after Hong Kong rugby was left reeling
The Football Association of Hong Kong, China said it “regretted the decision”.
“The HKFA learned on 29 January that the Konami’s eFootball 2024 gaming application adopted by the AFC eAsian Cup 2023 is unable to correctly display our team name of ‘Hong Kong, China’,” the governing body said in a statement.
“Upon days of negotiation with the organiser, no satisfactory solution could be found to resolve the issue. As such, based on the guidelines and advice from the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, we have informed AFC our decision to withdraw from the AFC eAsian Cup 2023.”
The inaugural edition of the eAsian Cup had been expected to involve 20 teams, placed in groups of three. The five-day tournament started on Thursday, with the group stage scheduled to continue on Friday.
Hong Kong, represented by Wong Yiu-hang, Choi Ka-lok and Jason Liem, were in Group C alongside two countries their football-playing counterparts had also gone up against, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
The Asian Football Confederation did not respond to a request for comment on Hong Kong’s decision to withdraw.
Sports governing bodies in Hong Kong were issued with guidelines in 2022 on how they should respond if the wrong national anthem was played at events, or the city’s flag was incorrect.
Among the rules was an instruction for athletes to leave a venue if there were no immediate corrections, and they should only return once an error had been fixed.
At the time, Ronnie Wong Man-chiu, honorary secretary general of the federation, said all governing bodies were “clear about the protocol regarding the flag and national anthem”.
“There were lots of questions that we answered, but we all think the meeting was constructive and will follow the guidelines,” he added in an interview with the Post. “We don’t think our guidelines have anything to do with penalising our athletes.”
Paul Cheng Ching-wan, the then acting commissioner for sports from the Cultural, Sports and Tourism Bureau, added that national sports associations, not athletes, would bear the brunt of any violations.
National sport associations could have their committee membership and government funding suspended if they failed to comply with the new guidelines.
