Punishing the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association (HKIHA) for a blunder over the national anthem at a recent international match would be unreasonable and detract from the team’s sporting achievements, a player has said.
The Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China threatened on Monday to suspend the asociation and said it had one month to provide a “full written explanation” about its “non-compliance… to handle the national anthem in a dignified manner.”
The potential punishment came after an incident in which Glory to Hong Kong – a song composed during the protests in 2019 – was played at a February ice hockey match in Bosnia and Herzegovina instead of the Chinese national anthem, March of the Volunteers.
It was the latest of several anthem blunders apparently caused by Google searches for the topic of “Hong Kong anthem.” The city government has expressed anger at the mix-ups.
If the association’s membership is suspended, it could lose some of its funding provided by the sports federation.
Bob Ngan, who played in the February match, told Commercial Radio on Thursday the move to punish the association for a mistake by the organiser of the match was “unreasonable.”
Ngan said the incident had shifted attention away from the fact that the ice hockey team came third in the championship – a historically good result for Hong Kong.
“The focus all went on the wrong national anthem; we all love ice hockey, and hoped to obtain good results in the match, but no one cared what happened with the Hong Kong team, they talked more about the wrong national anthem than caring what happened to the players,” said Ngan.
He added that several players fell ill in Bosnia and Herzegovina, creating a “stressful” situation for the head of the team Annie Kwan, as she had to take care of them and also have meetings with the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Ngan said several players planned to retire after the match, and had made personal sacrifices to take part. Many took leave from their day jobs and had to seek approval from their families for the trip.
The potential cut in subsidies could hinder the development of the sport, as it could be more difficult for the team to book practice venues, said Ngan.
In a statement on Thursday, the HKIHA said that the association will submit a written response in a month’s time and provide an improvement plan of its management.
The HKIHA also said that they had complied with SF&OC’s requirement when handling the national anthem all along, and that the organiser had already apologised.
“Our association did not feel respected by SF&OC in this incident. The SF&OC issued statements that were not factual to the media,” the HKIHA statement read.
“We felt that the SF&OC personnel handling the matter hoped to prove that only the HKIHA was at fault, and did not treat SF&OC’s role and responsibility in this incident seriously.”
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