About Us

offside.hk is Hong Kong’s prime English platform that has filled the gap in critical coverage of Hong Kong’s local football scene on a day-to-day basis. Founded in June 2014, offside.hk operates across various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The website was redeveloped in 2017, featuring news, background stories, interviews, fixtures, league tables and tactical analyses of the Hong Kong Premier League, the Asian Champions League, AFC Cup, and the national team.

offside.hk also proudly presents the bi-weekly “Hong Kong Football Podcast” and some editors are regularly featured on RTHK Radio 3. Since 2017 offside.hk sponsors an annual print magazine, the “Hong Kong Football Podcast Season Review”.

Our team consists of both local Chinese-speakers and foreigners, sharing the same objective to increase the awareness for Hong Kong’s local football scene. The mutual motivation is rooted in an obvious lack of coverage in English that has hindered non-local fans but also (non-Chinese) staff and players of local teams from keeping up-to-date with the sport.

Any questions or feedback? Contact us!

Interested in contributing to this website? Join us!

 

Team:

Tobias Zuser (founder, editor-in-chief)
Tobias has been living in Hong Kong and China since 2008. After working as an arts and event manager in Beijing for more than three years, where he also became a passionate supporter of Beijing Guoan, he moved back to Hong Kong in 2012. He obtain his PhD in sport sociology and cultural studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, focusing on football culture as well as cultural/sports policies in Hong Kong and China. Tobias is currently university lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He regularly appears as commentator on RTHK and also co-hosts the bi-weekly “Hong Kong Football Podcast”. Tobias is also a volunteer in the management team of Hong Kong’s refugee club All Black FC, helping them with their development and community outreach. In June 2014 he started offside.hk, as the first English platform solely dedicated to local football. His favourite Hong Kong side is Tai Po, but you can still see him at all Beijing Guoan away games in the south of China.

Christopher KL Lau (photographer, senior editor)
Chris was born in England and grew up in both England and Hong Kong. He has a background in media, education and non-profits. Chris is also a freelance writer and has written for a number of magazines, websites and newspapers around the world on many subjects ranging from the arts to travel. He is regular contributor to offside.hk and wildeastfootball.net. Chris is passionate about sports and its place in society. He is keen to promote both the Hong Kong Premier League and the Chinese Super League to a wider global audience. Chris follows Beijing Guoan’s results after living in Beijing for one memorable year in 2004.

Zinc Yeung (editor)
Zinc was born in Hong Kong and a Liverpool fan since he was a child. He eventually noticed the beauty of local football during the World Cup Qualifiers in 2015, finding it even more enjoyable than watching EPL on television. Now, Zinc is a proud fan of Pegasus and the Hong Kong national team. His dream is that the domestic league will be again as popular as during the golden era.

Adrian Kwong (editor)
Born in Hong Kong, Adrian got into football to find release from school and soon fell in love with “the beautiful game” as both culture and sport. Currently a criminology student, Adrian is especially interested in how football can be a driving force for change in local communities.  An avid supporter of Manchester City, he dreams of traveling and collecting jerseys from all over the world. Recently he started following local football after discovering home district side Tai Po FC.

Christie Leung (editor)
Christie has spent eight years studying and living in the UK, and has hence developed into a massive football fan, who now follows Asian football leagues (mainly Hong Kong and K-league), but also English Premier League and Bundesliga. She has become a regular attendee of local games for the past three seasons after being attracted by the very unique stadium atmosphere. Now Christie wishes to spread her local football to the wider world.

Patrick Au Yeung (editor)
Patrick enjoys writing and watching Hong Kong football. Upon returning from Canada, where he is an accredited national baseball umpire, he would love to transform himself as a professional sportswriter.

Chen Wenxi (editor)
Chen Wenxi was born and raised in Guangzhou. Like a lot of Cantonese, Wenxi is fond of Hong Kong because of its local language and vibrant culture. He is now an economics student in the United States and has been a supporter of Guangzhou R&F since 2013. Wenxi is also an avid collector of football jerseys in Asia.

Lester Chan (editor)
Born in Sha Tin, Lester was raised in Canada where he currently resides. He is simultaneously the most optimistic man in Hong Kong football and the most pessimistic at the same time. Expect Lester to tell it like it is, even when it’s not popular. He doesn’t consider himself a supporter of any Hong Kong club but would reconsider if a professional club moved to Sha Tin.

Jeff Hardbattle (editor, graphic designer)
Jeff moved to Japan in 2008 where he became immediately involved in writing blogs, match reports and statistics for J League games. He moved to Hong Kong in early 2013, and he has since done translation work and match reporting for YFCMD. He is very interested in promoting local football in order to attract more money and quality to the local game.

Matt Worth (editor)
Matt has divided the last decade of his life between London and Hong Kong and is passionate about Asian football culture, Hong Kong in particular. He has been writing and blogging about football for several years, and is a fan of serially disappointing English Premier League side Newcastle United. He has not yet adopted a Hong Kong club as his own, though for consistency it would need to be one that hasn’t won anything since the 1950s. In his spare time, Matt carves out a career as a corporate lawyer.

Jacob Panons (editor)
At 16, Jacob is the youngest member of the offside.hk team. Jacob was born in England but moved to Hong Kong when he was 8. He has played in the Henderson Youth League as a goalkeeper, is extremely passionate about football and is also a licensed junior referee.

Chichio Suen (editor)
Chichio was born in Macau and moved with his family to Hong Kong at the age of 6, being now a permanent citizen of both places. Following the news and reports on the mainstream media, new media, internet forums and blogs, he has been accumulating knowledge about football in Hong Kong, China, South-East Asia and some other places. Like the uncles on the stands, he cheers for good performances and does not have strong preferences toward clubs (except a club with relegation controversy; and in continental matches he must support HK sides).

Manni Cheung (editor)
Manni was born in Hong Kong and has been a fan of the national football team since day 1. As a graduate from Lingnan University, Department of Cultural Studies, he is especially interested in looking at football culture from a local context. Manni also once played as a goalkeeper in high school, following his two idols Yapp Hung Fai and Fan Chun Yip.

 

 

Contributors:

JRP Borthwick (photographer)
Jarl, or JB as he is known, is a part-time football photographer and full time football fan. JB grew up in Hong Kong and has fond memories of playing football here during his youth – from the potato patch that Happy Valley used to be, to playing in Aberdeen in the shadow (and the strong odour) of the BAT factory building. JB is committed to promoting the quality of both local football support and participation. When not playing, supporting or photographing footy, JB promotes his charity (The Wellbeing Society), writes children’s books and works in business development.

Ryan Kam (photographer)
Ryan grew up in the Ferguson era and is a true fan of attacking football. While he is a full time office worker in Hong Kong, he also enjoys the excitement of capturing special moments of the game (and in life) through his lens. Ryan would like to witness it someday when Hong Kong , a place he calls home, rebuilds its footballing image as one of the better teams in the region.

Afonso Pires (Macau editor)
Afonso was born in Portugal and has fallen in love with football as a child. He played in a youth Portuguese team and is also a big Benfica supporter. In recent years, Afonso discovered his interest in Asian football and especially the Macau Elite League, given the historic legacy of Portugal and Macau. He currently finishes his master degree in Forestry and Natural Resources Management at Instituto Superior de Agronomia.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Ndem Ambassa Stephane

    February 23, 2018 at 10:44 am

    Great job and keep it up. It has been lacking for a while. You will probably help to spread football in HK and HK football in Asia and the world.
    I am considering to join your team, but I have see what contribution I could bring.

    Regards

  2. Stuart Heaver

    November 19, 2015 at 11:45 am

    Just wanted to say thanks for the advice about ticket sales and public screenings for the HK v China game. Could not get a ticket for love nor money but enjoyed the screening at HKU. We are Hong Kong. Keep up the good work.

  3. Jim Liddell

    June 13, 2015 at 4:04 pm

    Great work. Getting all the football news in the English language is fantastic and has been sadly lacking for years.

  4. Lawrence

    May 3, 2015 at 8:41 am

    Keep up the great work fellas, exactly what the league needs and deserves, loving the site

    • Tobias

      May 7, 2015 at 3:10 pm

      Thanks a lot for your kind words, Lawrence!

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