Blow for Fok as city fails in bid to secure hosting rights for EAFF Championship

Hong Kong football has suffered a hurtful blow after failing to obtain hosting rights for any of the next three East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) Championship finals.

In an additional setback, the city will not stage the qualifying competition for next year’s tournament, after that honour was instead handed to Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

Eric Fok Kai-shan, chairman of the Football Association of Hong Kong, China, told his organisation’s AGM on March 28 that he would lobby the EAFF executive committee meeting for the city to host the preliminary contest.

Following the Tokyo summit on March 30, however, it was revealed Hong Kong must travel to Taiwan for the qualifying matches, which will happen in either November or December 2024.

The finals will take place in South Korea in July 2025. Mainland China were awarded the 2028 competition, with Japan staging in 2030.

Fok’s position as one of three vice-presidents of the EAFF executive committee, for the term until 2026, was confirmed following the meeting.

A slimmed-down, four-team EAFF Championship was held in Japan in 2022. Hong Kong failed to gain one point from matches against South Korea, China and eventual champions Japan.

Hong Kong fans seeking positive omens ahead of this year’s qualifiers need only look back to the same stage in 2018. That was also played in Taiwan, where Hong Kong beat the hosts and Mongolia and drew with North Korea to reach the following year’s finals. However, they did not pick up a point in the South Korea tournament.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, have slipped three places to 157 in the Fifa rankings following back-toback World Cup qualifying defeats by Uzbekistan last month.

The drop means head coach Jorn Andersen’s side are likely to be placed in pot three when the draw is made for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, which begin next March.

Hong Kong will be in one of six groups of four teams, with only the winners reaching the Saudi Arabian competition.

In local football, Kitchee’s hopes of a fourth straight Premier League championship were dented by a 0-0 draw with fourthplaced Eastern on Saturday.

Kitchee are one point behind leaders Lee Man, with six games remaining. The two sides meet on the final day of the campaign on May 26, in what is appearing destined to be a repeat of the title-decider on the closing day of 2022-23.

On that occasion, a 2-2 draw saw Kitchee finish two points clear of Lee Man.