Hong Kong football team’s beach bar night out was a ‘bonding experience’, coach says
Bosses call occasion in Fiji ‘light-hearted fun with minimal drinking’ but videos of event’s aftermath paint different picture
Ashley Westwood said he arranged a night out drinking for Hong Kong’s footballers in Fiji to strengthen team spirit and “create a good environment”, although at least one club manager was not pleased when his players reported back for duty a little worse for wear.
Having drawn 1-1 with Fiji to win the tri-nations tournament earlier this month, which followed a 3-0 victory over the Solomon Islands three days earlier, a number of players and staff headed from the team hotel to a beach bar in Nadi.
Westwood, who was named head coach last month, organised a coach to transport the team and staff to and from the bar for what he called “a controlled” event. The Football Association of Hong Kong China described the outing as a “light-hearted occasion with minimum drinking involved”.
But several people raised concerns during and after the occasion, and video footage of the journey back to the team hotel, which the Post has seen, paints a very different picture to the official line.
Nearly three years after 11 under-23 squad members were heavily punished for reportedly vandalising hotel rooms following a game in Japan, the issue of Hong Kong players drinking on international duty remains a sensitive one.
Four of the Hong Kong players in Fiji, Tse Ka-wing, Lam Hin-ting, Max Poon Pui-hin and Shinichi Chan, were among those who received one-year bans from representing Hong Kong for their parts in the October 2021 incident.
