Hong Kong football in crisis: can Jorn Andersen’s successor turn more water into wine?
- New coach one of many choices to get right if Hong Kong representative team are to show upward growth, not wither on the vine
International football has given Hong Kong some heady moments in the past year, but those delivering it have had to produce wine from water.
The game domestically has a shrinking audience and is propped up by taxpayer millions, prompting the question: do results by those wearing the Hong Kong shirt breed interest and investment, or vice versa? And should the city tend to the vines, or import better-quality fruit?
Despite the system
The immediate place in the international landscape of Hong Kong’s men’s representative football team can in some respects be framed as “life after Jorn Andersen”.
However, the struggles of one man to succeed in spite of the system surrounding him, and ultimately his inability to convince those in charge to align with him, revealed the question marks to be far more wide-ranging.
Whether judged on reaching the Asian Cup finals for the first time since 1968, or on Hong Kong’s best Asian Games performance, or alternatively on the city’s continuing slide down the Fifa world rankings, there is no questioning the positive impact Andersen made during 2½ years in charge.
And who the Football Association of Hong Kong, China (HKFA) names as his replacement could very well help shape the future of the game locally.
