Call time on Covid-19-battered Hong Kong Premier League season and focus on 2020-21
- HKFA chairman admits there is a battle to save this season amid city’s latest coronavirus measures, but should they bother?
- With only six teams of 10 committed to restart and questions over AFC Cup likelihood, it would be better to concentrate on 2020-21
The season has been disrupted left and right, first for anti-government protests and then the Covid-19 pandemic – circumstances that are no one involved’s fault.
Training is impossible because the Leisure and Cultural Services Department’s facilities are closed once more, while the HKFA Jockey Club compound in Tseung Kwan O that had acted as both training ground and match facility when the HKPL briefly resumed in February has also shut its doors.
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Hong Kong football gets a new home
That’s not to mention that no meaningful training could be done anyway, with a limit of four people put in place by the government to combat the spread of this latest wave of Covid-19.
The disruption already caused by the earlier coronavirus measures has seen teams pull out after being offered the chance to do so without punishment by the HKFA.
They had every right to do so, and good on the FA for recognising the “special situation” and financial concerns faced by most HKPL clubs.
Regardless of the clubs being allowed – and it being the sensible thing for them to do to safeguard their futures – four teams pulling out of the league is damaging to this season’s tournament.
Those points have disappeared and the league table has changed accordingly. As it stands, presuming there is no new window to pull out, there are three teams (R&F, Lee Man and Kitchee) on 10 points at the top of the table – leaders R&F having lost 12 points to the coronavirus.
Can you really call that the same league as the one that began last year?
The French, Scottish and Dutch top flights all decided to call their seasons off in May – and they only had to deal with Covid-19 disruption. There is no shame in Hong Kong deciding to abandon this campaign.
If Hong Kong’s clubs insist on carrying on, if and when government regulations allow, then how? It is not as easy to isolate and play behind closed doors as other leagues, such as the Chinese Super League, have resorted to.
Yes, there is the issue with the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup and who plays in that next season, but that is assuming that the AFC can even make it happen. Who knows what state we will be in by then?
However, that going ahead is complicated by the group stages needing to be relocated to one venue and the group winners needing to travel to another host venue for inter-zone semi-finals and beyond. The AFC has made progress in both the East and West already, but Kitchee’s group is a potential stumbling block.
In that group are the Hongkongers, Macau’s CPK and Taiwan’s Tatung. They will be joined by either another Taiwanese Premier League side in Taipower or the Mongolians of Ulaanbaatar City, who are yet to contest their East Asia zone play-off.
The group stage is scheduled to be played in October and November but there is nothing to say the relevant travel restrictions will be eased by then. Also, bear in mind that CPK have not played since last July when the Macanese season ended, and Kitchee’s situation means that they may not have played since March.
All of this puts a massive asterisk by the winners, should we ever get there, and reasons to think twice. We may never forget this “Covid-19/20 season” in Hong Kong but that does not mean we need to finish it.
