Hong Kong footballers take Guangzhou-based R&F to tribunal over unpaid wages after side pulled out of Hong Kong Premier League
- While some players have taken deals from defunct Hong Kong Premier League side, several are taking the fight for their wages to court
- HKFA and Fifa could not help in dispute once the club pulled out so players drafted in lawyers – ‘We all want as much as we can get from the club’
The Hong Kong Premier League kicked off last weekend but several of the city’s best players were missing after Guangzhou-based R&F walked away at the end of last season, leaving them without a club and a pay packet.
R&F, who are owned by R&F Properties tycoon Li Sze-lim, took the decision to pull out from Hong Kong football on October 14, just days after the 2019-20 campaign finished on October 11, having narrowly missed out on lifting a first title.
That meant all of the players, including several Hong Kong internationals, were left without a club and facing financial loss as their contracts – among the most lucrative in the domestic game – would not be paid up. Several of the players took a pay-off from the club but others decided against it, instead choosing to fight for what they were owed.
Jared Lum was one such player, who had the added ignominy of never actually playing for the club. Lum joined R&F midway through the Hong Kong Premier League’s Covid-19 pause so had to wait until the end of the season to register, but with R&F pulling the plug that point never came.
Lum has now signed for Eastern but not all of his former teammates have been so lucky, including Matt Lam.
With only eight teams in the top flight this season squad places are at a premium and budgets were allocated before R&F decided to pull out.