AFC: R&F can represent Hong Kong in Champions League if they qualify – but there’s a catch
- If R&F’s Chinese Super League team also qualify, the club will have to choose which side enters the regional competitions
- R&F lead the Hong Kong Premier League which is aiming for September restart after being suspended in March due to pandemic
Guangzhou-based Hong Kong Premier League side R&F can represent the city in regional cup competitions if they win the league, the Asian Football Confederation has confirmed.
The playing status of R&F in the AFC Champions League has been questioned as the mainland club also runs a team in the Chinese Premier League under the same name.
However, the AFC has confirmed R&F can represent Hong Kong on the regional stage, but with one condition – there cannot be two R&F teams in the same competition.
If both teams qualify, for example in the 2021 AFC Champions League, only one can enter the competition and the club has to make a decision.
While R&F were leading the Hong Kong Premier League before its suspension, the club’s higher profile team are fifth in group A of the reformatted Chinese Super League, which began in late July. They have seven points after six games in the eight-team group, eight points behind group leaders Guangzhou Evergrande.
If they do not finish in the top four places to enter the championship-placing second stage tournament they are unlikely to qualify for AFC competitions, with the status of this season’s Chinese FA Cup still unclear.
The CSL can have a maximum of four teams in the top tier regional competition.Last season that went to the top three in the 16-team league and the FA Cup winners.
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Guangzhou R&F made it into the AFC Champions League in 2015.
With the HKPL planning to resume action in mid-September, the decision came as a timely boost for R&F, according to head coach Yeung Ching-kwong.
“Playing in the regional cup competition is one of our major targets,” he said. “Now it seems we are eligible if we can win the league and this will certainly give us more impetus when we restart the season.”
The Hong Kong Football Association will discuss the AFC’s ruling at its next board meeting after some clubs queried if R&F had infringed any Fifa rules by playing their home matches in Guangzhou and not in Hong Kong.
The association, meanwhile, is hoping training venues will reopen this weekend, three weeks before the planned restart of the season that has been suspended since March due to the pandemic.
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“We are pushing the government with a more detailed plan of our precautionary measures taken to cope with Covid-19,” said association chairman Pui Kwan-kay.
“Also, the coronavirus situation is easing in Hong Kong. Hopefully it can give us a helping hand.”
Last week, the clubs agreed they would adopt a “home quarantine” method as suggested by the association’s medical adviser, Patrick Yung Shu-hang.
Players and officials will be tested two days before the match and then go through a “home quarantine” process.
However, the plan needs the government to reopen its facilities.
Only six of the 10 teams have indicated they will continue, headed by leaders R&F, along with Lee Man, Kitchee, Southern, Eastern and Happy Valley. They plan to start the season on September 19.
