School football powerhouse’s absence in annual competition confirmed

Organizers have confirmed that Yan Chai Hospital Tung Chi Ying Memorial Secondary School will miss out on a major annual competition this year, rejecting a plea from the institution to approve its late application.

The School Sports Federation of Hong Kong, China said on Saturday its council overseeing secondary school programs decided to deny the school the chance to compete, noting the decision has to be fair to other schools.

The school’s management previously appealed for discretionary consideration and said this year’s sign-up deadline had been missed due to administrative negligence.

The school explained that the registration had been the responsibility of the former head of physical education, who was the only person with the credentials to log into a system to sign up between July 22 and September 2. It also said the former head was uncooperative and had told the school that the password for the system was lost.

However, the federation said in a statement today that the explanations were not good enough.

“After our discussion and taking reference from similar cases in the past, it was unanimously decided that the late enrolment of [the school] will not be accepted,” it said.

“The federation, as the organizer, has to take into account all member schools and make comprehensive consideration. At the same time, the fairness of the competition system has to be maintained.”

The federation said it was sorry to see the school miss out, but noted that it has to be fair.

"The federation would like to reiterate that it has not suspended Tung Chi Ying from competing. The school can still sign up to compete in other divisions, as well as competitions that have not yet closed for applications," it said.

The federation also noted that it had previously processed the school's application to reset the password in August, which was confirmed by the school.