Resources Capital and Sham Shui Po will self-relegate from the Premier League next season. All hope is not lost, however, as Kowloon City look likely to promote and HKFC look set to remain.
Two clubs in two days have announced their decision to pull out of the Premier League and self-relegate.
On Friday, Resources Capital director of football, Ho Shun-yin, revealed that his club would drop down to the First Division following an all-clubs Premier League meeting. A day later, Sham Shui Po announced that they would also drop down to the second tier, leaving the top flight with eight teams for the first time in three seasons.
Both clubs are dropping out of the Premier League due to lack of funding – a sobering reflection of the lack of commercial support for the local game despite the Hong Kong team’s qualification for the 2023 Asian Cup and the fourth-place finish at the 2023 Asian Games.
As Sham Shui Po’s statement on social media Saturday noted, “After many rounds of negotiations, Sham Shui Po have taken the decision to withdraw from the Hong Kong Premier League due to lack of commercial sponsorship.” The club had informed the media minutes before their official annoucement that two potential sponsors had pulled out at the last minute, leaving the club with no choice but to return to the First Division.
Ho was more effusive initially about RCFC’s decision, but later admitted, “In the end, we have to talk about money. The current economy is what it is, and so I understand our bosses’ decision (to self-relegate). We have to think about what’s best for us.”
While both clubs had been operating on shoestring budgets, Sham Shui Po’s financial woes had been more publicized than RCFC. As Offside first reported on 4 May, the club were in search of a white knight investor in order to continue their journey in the top flight. At the time, Offside were told that the district team were short $3 million in sponsorship funds.
Questions about Sham Shui Po’s future continued even as the team upset Lee Man in the FA Cup semifinal and nearly won the final on 1 June. Five days later, on the morning of 6 June, the club published a “final appeal” on social media, hoping to raise $1.5 million – half of the deficit a month prior – before a self-imposed deadline of 13 June.
The deadline was pushed back further as the club cited the need for more time to consider offers from potential sponsors within and outside of Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the club’s kit manufacturer ATACAR held a kit auction in support of the club which raised $50,000, though the fine print noted that the funds would used towards the operations of the club, with no guarantee as to whether the club would remain.
Ko Chun-kay, the club’s director of football, gave no comment after Friday afternoon’s Premier League club meeting, but made the decision to pull the plug the following day.
Sham Shui Po on Instagram
Resources Capital came into the league in 2020 with high hopes. They had hired Spanish head coach Joan Esteva, committed to spending a budget of $9 million a year, and promised to give local players greater opportunities to play.
On the pitch, the Pink Corp never finished above seventh in the table – though results were deemed as the most important priority.
The club were the first in Asia to lunch non-fungible token collectables, featuring 50 packs of collectable player cards which could be redeemed for signed shirts and meet-and-greets with the players. Behind RCFC’s creative marketing strategy was a desire to cash in on the Bitcoin boom during the pandemic.
But as the cryptocurrency’s value fell near the second quarter of 2022, so too did RCFC’s budget.
The Pink Corp were able to finish nine points clear of Sham Shui Po for eighth in the table during the 2022-23 season, yet that did not prevent a further tightening of the budget. The club parted ways with Esteva at the end of the season, while goalkeeping coach, Ho Kwok-chuen left to take a deputy director’s job at North District.
North District proceeded to poach six players from under RCFC’s noses last summer – four of them starters – while the Pink Corp were still ironing out their plans. RCFC were forced to sign many players without Premier League experience ahead of this past season, which they finished with an average squad age of 22.1 – second youngest only to HK U23.
Uncertainty over the club’s future loomed near the close of the season when rumours began circulating of a potential crossover or merger with Sham Shui Po. Despite this, Ho Shun-yin submitted an application for RCFC to participate in the 2024-25 Premier League.
Talks between the two clubs fell through, and RCFC’s ownership switched their attention to a First Division club looking to promote: Kowloon City.
Ho Shun-yin on Instagram
When Kowloon City Sports Association president, Ivan Wong, declared two years ago that the club had a three-year plan in place to promote to the Premier League, nobody listened. When he insisted that they plan would be evaluated after two years and that an earlier than expected promotion would be considered, no one paid attention.
And now, the eyes of the Hong Kong footballing world are on the district where the former Kai Tak Airport and the Kowloon Walled City once stood. The district is home to the HKFA’s headquarters at Ho Man Tin, but have never had a team of its own in the top flight.
If rumours are to believed, the club have expressed their interest in promotion to the HKFA and should receive a decision in the near future. The club have refused comment, except to say that there will be news in July, though various news outlets have reported that Kowloon City will be a member of the Premier League next season.
It is unclear at this point what a Kowloon City-RCFC crossover would look like or how many of Kowloon City’s players would be willing to play professionally.
One report in Ming Pao went as far as to say that former Sham Shui Po player and assistant coach, Chan Ming-kong, will manage the side and that players Chan Man-fai and Tsang Kam-to will return to the top flight with the club. Other reports state that a number of players from RCFC, HK U23 and Sham Shui Po have knocked on the doors of the club, though there has been no indication which stadium will be made the team’s home ground.
Kowloon City won the First Division title this season. (Credit: Kowloon City)
But with Resources Capital and Sham Shui Po relegated, HK U23 withdrawn, and Kowloon City possibly promoted, the question as to the number of teams in next season’s Premier League remains unresolved.
The answer is likely to be nine with the news that HKFC are set to remain in the league. There had been some uncertainty over the future of the club as the first team had operated overbudget in the past season.
After some restructuring, Offside has learned that HKFC members voted to approve a resolution which would see the first team operate on a leaner budget in the coming season. A source inside the club has told Offside that there will an overhaul of the squad in the transfer window and that the spine of the team will consist of local players next season.
Club management were frustrated with the HKFA’s decision to reschedule two of the club’s matches in May to midweek. They felt that this was an unfair ask of the semi-professional side, who’s players work during the day and many of whom could not play near the back end of the season due to injuries.
In spite of the club’s semi-professional status, management were unhappy with the first team’s performances overall compared to the season before. These factors have to led to concern about the sustainability of the endeavour.
However, with the restructuring plan now approved, the next bit of business shall be the extraordinary HKFA board meeting scheduled for Tuesday, which should provide clarity on the number of teams participating in the 2024-25 Premier League.
