Serious consequences could follow under new government guidelines after the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association failed to prevent a protest song instead of the Chinese national anthem being played at a world championship event. Steps are being taken by the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China to suspend the membership of the association, which may result in funding cuts for the group. To what extent athletes will be affected remains to be seen. But the incident is certainly a costly lesson for the sports sector.

Officials have rightly stressed that any reduction of funding as punishment would be made under the premise of not affecting the athletes. But Hong Kong team player Bob Ngan Cheuk-long said it would be unreasonable to punish the association over a mistake by the organiser when it played “Glory to Hong Kong”, a protest song linked to the 2019 social unrest, instead of “March of the Volunteers” following a February 28 match between Hong Kong and Iran in Bosnia.

Ngan is probably not the only one frustrated by the outcome of the episode. He lamented that the attention was on the mix-up rather than the team’s performance. He said the potential funding cut might undermine the development of ice hockey.

Hong Kong ice hockey association blames sports federation for anthem blunder

It is a shame that the war of words among sport officials has escalated. Like it or not, the guidelines issued in the wake of a series of anthem blunders at international sporting events have put the onus on local sporting groups to ensure the correct music is played. Obviously there were inadequacies on the part of the organiser as well as the association and its executives. But the players are to be commended for following the guidelines to make a “time out” gesture as soon as they heard the wrong song being played.