We won't stand for this anthem disaster

Could there be anything more embarrassing at an athletic event than when a wrong anthem is played?

The Hong Kong rugby team just went through this in Incheon, South Korea, where they played in the second leg of the Asian Rugby Seven Series.

They should have been elated, but their 19-12 victory over South Korea was overshadowed by a mistake committed by the event organizer who, instead of playing the Chinese national anthem, played the instrumental version of a song prohibited in the SAR.

The segment taken from Glory to Hong Kong - closely associated with the massive anti-government protests in 2019 - was played before the match.

The organizer has made an apology and blamed a junior staff for the mistake.

Despite the apology and clarification that it was due to human error, it is still an unacceptable mistake.

The incident is causing a storm in Hong Kong, with local politicians quick to hold the Hong Kong Rugby Union responsible for the fiasco.

Some have even gone as far as to demand the team be disbanded as a punishment.

Now that Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has ordered a thorough investigation, it is necessary to wait for the truth before further comments are made. Actions that may be taken in future will have to be based on the findings.

According to local organizer Korea Rugby Union, a worker searched online for a Hong Kong national anthem and added the top result to a folder labeled "Hong Kong." Then the broadcasting room staff played the music file in the Hong Kong folder instead of the one labeled "China."

That's how the mistake occurred, according to the union as cited by international media.

So far, the account stops short of saying whether the staff member selected the music by mistake or on purpose. Nonetheless, a random search on Google yields results including Glory to Hong Kong.

If it was a mistake, it was not the first time that similar incidents have happened.

In Kuwait in 2012, Kazakhstan's shooting team was astonished at the medal ceremony when a comedy parody based on the country's national anthem was played. That song was produced by a British comedian for the film Borat that depicted the nation as backward.

The Kuwait organizer later clarified that a staff member had downloaded the top search from the internet by mistake.

If the South Korean account was the whole truth, it would be a repetition of a mistake that had occurred in Kuwait about 10 years ago.

Though such incidents are rare, they have occurred at other sports events in the past - for example, at the 2003 Davis Cup final between Australia and Spain, in the 2016 Copa America and during the Euro 2020 qualifier in France.

Following the embarrassing incident in Incheon, the Korea Rugby Union deleted the Hong Kong folder.

While the Hong Kong team should be congratulated for beating South Korea in the second leg final, there is a lesson to learn from the incident: knowing how to react when the wrong anthem is played.