HKFA slammed by Legislative Council for its ‘poor governance’
- Council’s Public Accounts Committee tears into FA financial statement endorsed by ‘one-man committee’
- Councillors also criticised the association’s hiring of former Hong Kong coach Gary White after the deadline for applications had passed
The Hong Kong Football Association has come under fire again for its poor governance, with Legislative Councillors slamming the association committee members for its continued absence from meetings for a period of up to four years.
Two weeks after the FA was criticised in the Audit Commission’s Report 74 for showing a “lack of progress” in a number of areas since initiating Project Phoenix nine years ago, the city’s governing body of football was blasted again on Saturday at a hearing conducted by the Council’s Public Accounts Committee which considers the report.
Senior officials from the government’s Home Affairs Bureau as well as Football Association chairman Pui Kwan-kay and chief executive Paul Woodland were invited to the meeting to shed light on the accusations.
According to the report, the association’s Audit Committee held no meetings after February 2015 for a period of four years up to 2019. It was also noted that committee consisted of just one member (the chairman), which they argued would “not be conducive to effective deliberation of business issues and collective decision making”.
Councillor Steven Ho Chun-yin said three HKFA annual reports filed between 2015-17 found endorsement of the financial account by its Finance Sub-Committee and Audit Committee, which was subsequently approved by the Board