Locale China and Hong Kong First meeting 1978 Largest victory China 7-0 Hong Kong | Teams China
/ Hong Kong Most wins China | |
The China–Hong Kong football rivalry is a sports rivalry between the national association football teams of the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong. The rivalry has been exacerbated by Hong Kong's status as a Special Administrative Region of China, which means that it does not practise communism as on the mainland, a legacy of having been under British rule until the transfer of sovereignty in 1997.
Contents
History
China and Hong Kong have been playing each other in football matches since a friendly in Hong Kong in 1978. In 1985, Hong Kong, then a British dependent territory, played China in the AFC First Round 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification group. The final match at Workers’ Stadium, Beijing meant China only needed to avoid defeat to progress and Hong Kong had to win. Despite this, Hong Kong won 2–1. In response, Chinese fans blocked the Hong Kong team from leaving and started rioting in China's first known case of football hooliganism.
In 1997, Hong Kong was handed over from the United Kingdom to China but was permitted to continue to field a separate national football team under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration despite its new status as a Special Administrative Region of China under the One Country, Two Systems policy. In 2003, when China and Hong Kong were drawn together during the AFC 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, former Chinese national football team manager, Bora Milutinovic stated: "This is incredible. How can China play Hong Kong? Hong Kong is China. They are the same country." During this campaign, China won both matches: winning 1-0 in Hong Kong and 7-0 in China.
2018 World Cup Qualifying
During 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying, China and Hong Kong were drawn in the same group for the second round. The political situation between the two countries had been made tenser by the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong in 2014. Prior to the first match in China, the Chinese Football Association released a poster calling the Hong Kong national football team "Hong Kong, China" and stating "This team has players with black skin, yellow skin and white skin. Best to be on guard against such a multi-layered team!" in reference to the multi-racial Hong Kong national team. This was criticised as racist in Hong Kong. In response Hong Kong fans in following matches started booing the Chinese national anthem "March of the Volunteers", played as Hong Kong's anthem since 1997 when it replaced "God Save the Queen". As a result of the booing, FIFA fined the Hong Kong Football Association HK$ 40,000.
The first fixture was at Bao'an Stadium, Shenzhen. Hong Kong fans were warned not to insult the Chinese flag or anthem to "endanger national security" at the risk of being arrested. The match ended 0-0, where the People's Armed Police attended armed with riot control equipment. On the day of the return match between Hong Kong and China at Mong Kok Stadium in Hong Kong, the 500 Chinese away fans were escorted from the border crossing at Shenzhen to the stadium and entering in a separate entrance while being abused by Hong Kong fans. The Hong Kong Police had 1,300 officers, approximately one for every five spectators, on duty for the match. Inside, the Chinese fans waved red flags, a symbol of communism which is not practiced in Hong Kong, and sung Chinese Communist songs. Hong Kong fans responded by chanting "We are Hong Kong" and held up banners saying "Hong Kong is not China" in English. When "March of the Volunteers" was played, Hong Kong fans booed it while also turning their backs and holding up signs with "boo" written on them. With the match ending in a 0-0 draw, the Chinese Football Association sacked manager Alain Perrin, something which the Hong Kong Football Association chairman, Brian Leung attributed to China's draws with Hong Kong. Because of the booing of the Chinese national anthem, FIFA fined the Hong Kong Football Association HK$78,000 for a repeat offense. In 2016 at Hong Kong's first home match for a year against the Cambodia national football team at Mong Kok Stadium, the Hong Kong fans continued to boo the Chinese national anthem.
Club football
At club level, Hong Kong and Chinese teams rarely play each other. Chinese clubs had previously set up satellite teams to compete in Hong Kong. Starting with Dongguan Lanwa, who were then replaced after two years by Chinese Super League team Chengdu Blades' reserve team, Sheffield United. In 2015, the Chinese Football Association changed their policy in that that Hong Kong players in the Chinese Super League would from 2016 be considered as foreign players rather than as "home players", this partially viewed in Hong Kong as being done because Hong Kong players were able to earn more money in China because they were classed as "home players" rather than foreigners despite to the Hong Kong Football Association's independence. In 2016, Guangzhou F.C., after receiving approval from the Hong Kong Football Association, created R&F F.C. for their youth team to compete in the Hong Kong Premier League. There was an arrangement that the players would reside in Guangzhou but play their home matches in Hong Kong and that they had to field Hong Kong eligible players. There was opposition to this, with the perception that the Chinese team were being given preferential treatment to compete in the Hong Kong Premier League ahead of local Hong Kong clubs.
For the 2017 AFC Champions League, Hong Kong club Eastern SC and Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande were drawn into the same group, the Group G. Teams will play each other on 22 February in Guangzhou and 25 April in Hong Kong.