Homegrown footballers need to stop complaining and prove they're good enough for Hong Kong, says coach

Hong Kong coach Kim Pan-gon has urged local players to battle their way into the national squad rather than complain about limited opportunities for homegrown players.

With World Cup qualifiers coming up, Kim named a 25-member squad of which half are either naturalised or mainland-born.

At the weekend, when champions Kitchee beat Eastern in the FA Cup final, just four of the 22 who started were locally-born.

Kitchee captain Lo Kwan-yee, a Hong Kong international, expressed his concern, saying youngsters would be discouraged from pursuing the sport.

But Kim insisted: "If [homegrown players] were good enough, we would not have to look outside. This happens not only in Hong Kong but other parts of the world and even Asian heavyweights such as South Korea and Japan are trying to recruit naturalised players.