Sports Alliance calls on Carrie Lam to give HK$10,000 to virus-hit coaches – ‘the situation is horrible’
- Concern group formed by Election Committee sports sector members wants new Anti-epidemic Fund to help out individual coaches
- Survey finds 67 per cent of front-line coaches have lost all of their income due to the epidemic, while others expect to suffer
Members of the sports community urged the government to provide a subsidy of HK$10,000 to individual coaches who have been struggling to make a living since the coronavirus outbreak in January.
With the government due to announce details of a second round of the Anti-epidemic Fund subsidy scheme, the sports sector, which did not benefit from the first round of subsidies, should be taken care of, according to the Hong Kong Sports Alliance, a concern group.
The group, made up of all 15 members of the sports sector of the Election Committee, sent out questionnaires in mid-March to 79 of Hong Kong’s sports associations, their members and district sports associations inquiring about the financial situation of their coaches.
“The situation is horrible,” Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, convenor of the group and vice-president of the Hong Kong Olympic Committee, said at an online press conference on Wednesday.
“We received responses from over 400 clubs or organisations out of 1,000 and most of their coaches cannot make ends meet in the epidemic, especially with the closure of schools and public facilities where most of these coaches earn their living.
