The

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

section of

Hong Kong Football Club Hong Kong Football Club (HKFC; ), established in 1886, is a private members' club in Hong Kong. The name reflects the origin as a club for playing association football and rugby. The club is situated in Happy Valley, with the sports pitche ...

(

Abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

: HKFC; ) fields a range of teams at various age divisions in the Hong Kong leagues. The first team currently competes in the

Hong Kong Premier League The Hong Kong Premier League () is a Hong Kong professional football league organised by the Hong Kong Football Association. It is currently sponsored by BOC Life and officially known as BOC Life Hong Kong Premier League (). The inaugural seaso ...

History

While the football team has won many titles in the second-tier competition in recent years, they have rarely enjoyed success when playing against the professional sides in the First Division. In 1980 however, "CLUB" as they were commonly known, did manage to avoid relegation from the professional First Division for the first time in their history. One of the highlights of the season was a 1–1 draw with eventual Champions

Seiko SA Seiko Sports Association () were one of the most popular and successful football teams in the history of football in Hong Kong. The team withdrew from the Hong Kong First Division League after the 1985–86 season. History Seiko was a team spon ...

. On 10 May 1980 at the HK Government Stadium CLUB defeated Kui Tan 1–0 with an 87th-minute penalty scored by John McGunnigle, meaning Kui Tan joined

Yuen Long Yuen Long is a town in the western New Territories, Hong Kong. To its west lie Hung Shui Kiu (), Tin Shui Wai, Lau Fau Shan and Ha Tsuen, to the south Shap Pat Heung and Tai Tong, to the east Au Tau and Kam Tin (), and to the north N ...

in the drop that year. In the past few years, HKFC opted not to take promotion to the First Division. In 2006, finally, the club accepted the promotion after winning the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. After showing initial promise, they lost 4 league matches in a row between March and April 2007 and were relegated to the Second Division. They did however become champions of the Second Division again in April 2010 and returned to the First Division. Therefore, HKFC is known as the

yo-yo club A yo-yo club is a sporting side that is regularly promoted and relegated. The phrase is most typically used in association football in the United Kingdom, especially in reference to promotion to and relegation from the Premier League. The name ...

in Hong Kong. In 2016, two years after the establishment of the fully professional Hong Kong Premier League, HKFC finally decided to seek promotion to the top flight after finishing as runners-up behind

Tai Po Tai Po is an area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It refers to the vicinity of the traditional market towns in the area presently known as Tai Po Old Market or Tai Po Kau Hui () (the original "Tai Po Market") on the north of Lam Tsu ...

in the 2015–16 season. Their stay in the top flight only lasted a single season, however, as the club finished bottom in 2016–17 season and dropped back down to the First Division. HKFC won the First Division for the first time in a century during the 2017–18 season, going unbeaten throughout the entire league campaign. The club declined promotion as they did not want to field a professional side. After being crowned champions of the 2020–21 Hong Kong First Division League, on 19 August 2021, HKFC accepted the HKFA's invitation to be promoted to the

2021–22 Hong Kong Premier League The 2021–22 Hong Kong Premier League (also known as the BOC Life Hong Kong Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the eighth season of the Hong Kong Premier League, the top division of Hong Kong football. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ...

, after the withdrawals of Happy Valley and

Pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

, having last appeared five years ago in the 2016–17 season.

HKFC Soccer Sevens

The team is known outside Hong Kong for being the host of the annual

HKFC Soccer Sevens The HKFC Soccer Sevens, formerly known as the International Soccer Sevens, is an annual invitational seven-a-side football tournament which is organised and hosted by Hong Kong Football Club. Held since 1999, many young professional players have m ...

youth-team seven-a-side tournament which attracts high-profile teams such as Manchester United,

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

and

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

Team staff

{, class="wikitable" , - !Position !Staff , - , Head coach, , Tony Hamilton-Bram , - , Assistant coach, , John Casey , - , Assistant coach, , John Pimlott , - , Assistant coach, ,

Anto Grabo Anto Grabo (, born 7 December 1960) is a Yugoslavian-born Hong Kong professional footballer of Croatian descent who played as a midfielder and spent most of his career in Hong Kong. He is currently the assistant coach of Hong Kong Premier League ...

, - , Goalkeeping coach, , Justin Wah , - , Technical coach, , Stephen Tucker-Roberts

Current squad

First team

^LP ^LP Remarks:
^LP These players are considered as local players in Hong Kong domestic football competitions.

Notable players

Jaimes Mckee Jaimes Anthony McKee (; born 14 April 1987) is a former professional footballer who played as a forward or winger. He was the top scorer of the Hong Kong Senior Shield in the 2006–07 season and the top scorer of the Hong Kong First Divisi ...

Jack Sealy Jonathan Jack Sealy (born 4 May 1987), commonly known as Jack Sealy (), is an English-born Hong Kong professional footballer who currently plays for Hong Kong Premier League club HKFC. Early years Jack Sealy is the son of former Queen's Park ...

* Andy Russell *

James Ha James Stephen Gee Ha ( born 26 December 1992), nicknamed Bullet, is an English-born Hong Kong professional footballer who plays as a striker and is currently a free agent. He is a member of the Hong Kong national football team. He was awarde ...

Cheng Lai Hin Michael Cheng Lai Hin (; born ) is a former Hong Kong professional footballer who played as a striker. Cheng was arrested by the ICAC on match fixing charges in 2017 but was subsequently cleared. Club career Kitchee Cheng Lai Hin signed fo ...

Ho Kwok Chuen } Ho Kwok Chuen (; born 20 February 1977) is a former Hong Kong professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the goalkeeping coach of Hong Kong Premier League club North District. Club career Sun Hei Due to a lack of pl ...

Kwok Kar Lok Kenneth Kwok Kar Lok (; born 14 March 1980) is a Hong Kong football coach and former footballer. He is currently the head coach of Hong Kong Premier League club Sham Shui Po. He is the son of former Taiwan international Kwok Kam-hung. Club ca ...

Li Hang Wui Li Hang Wui (; born 15 February 1985) is a Hong Kong football coach and a former professional footballer. He was the captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy shi ...

* Robbie Bacon *

Freek Schipper Frederik Pieter "Freek" Schipper (born 25 October 1983) is a Dutch professional footballer who currently plays for Hong Kong Premier League club HKFC. Club career HKFC Freek would join HKFC on the 1st of July 2008 from Mutual. He would mak ...

* Robert Scott * Gergely Ghéczy *

Calvin Harris Adam Richard Wiles (born 17 January 1984), known professionally as Calvin Harris, is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter who has released six studio albums. His debut studio album, ''I Created Disco'', was released in June ...

Yochanan Vollach Yochanan Vollach ( he, יוחנן וולך, also Jochanan Wallach or Yohanan Wallach, born May 14, 1945) is an Israeli former footballer. He was a member of the Israeli national team that competed at the 1970 FIFA World Cup. He is a member of th ...

Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli ...

former international who played in the 1970 World Cup Finals

Honours

League

* Hong Kong First Division/

(Tier 1) **Champions (1): 1919–20 * Hong Kong Second Division/ Hong Kong First Division (Tier 2) **Champions (15): 1972–73, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1992–93, 1994–95, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2000–01, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2017–18,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

**Runners Up (5): 1988–89, 2007–08, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2018–19 *

Hong Kong Third Division Hong may refer to: Places *Høng, a town in Denmark *Hong Kong, a city and a special administrative region in China *Hong, Nigeria *Hong River in China and Vietnam *Lake Hong in China Surnames *Hong (Chinese name) *Hong (Korean name) Organiz ...

/ Hong Kong Second Division (Tier 3) **Champions (2): 1978–79, 1986–87

Cup Competitions

Hong Kong Senior Shield The Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield (), known commonly as the Senior Shield, is the football knockout inter-club competition held in Hong Kong and the fourth oldest football tournament in Asia. Traditionally, only the teams in the Hong Kong ...

**Champions (5): 1898–99, 1907–08, 1915–16, 1918–19, 1921–22 *

Hong Kong Junior Challenge Shield Hong Kong Junior Shield () was a football competition in Hong Kong established in 1922. All teams in the Second Division and the Third Division were included in the competition. South China was the most successful club, winning 9 titles. Hist ...

**Champions (6): 1976–77, 1978–79, 1992–93, 1994–95, 1996–97, 2004–05

References

External links

Hong Kong Football Club official website HKFC Soccer SectionHKFC: Soccer Section official Facebook groupHKFC live scores
at Sofascore {{DEFAULTSORT:Hong Kong FC Hong Kong Premier League Hong Kong First Division League Football clubs in Hong Kong Association football clubs established in 1886 Happy Valley, Hong Kong 1886 establishments in Hong Kong