Yuen Long Football Club (), previously known as Best Union Yuen Long () for sponsorship reasons, is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

professional

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 ...

club based in

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 Nam Sang W ...

which currently competes in the Hong Kong First Division. The football teams of the club were originally organised by Yuen Long District Sports Association (). In 2013, Yuen Long Football Club was established as a private entity, separate from the district sports association.

History

Yuen Long District Sport Association was established by former chairmen of

Hong Kong Football Association The Hong Kong Football Association Limited (), often abbreviated to the HKFA, is the governing body of association football in Hong Kong. Its current chairman is Pui Kwan Kay and its Chief Executive Officer is Joaquin Tam. History The HKFA was ...

, Fu Lee Sha and Tsang Sam Chiu in 1959. The team entered the former

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 ...

in 1959–60 season. The team carried a three-year plan to get promotion to Hong Kong First Division. In 1961–62, the team became the first district team to compete in First Division. In 1962–63, the team gained their first top Division League title. In 1967–68, the team captured their first

Senior Shield The Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield (), known commonly as the Senior Shield, is the Association football, football Single-elimination tournament, knockout inter-club competition held in Hong Kong and the List of oldest football competitions, fo ...

by beating

Tung Sing Tung may refer to: People * Madison Tung, a U.S. Air Force Officer, wrestler, and Rhodes Scholar * Ho-Pin Tung, a dutch race car driver of Chinese descent. * Lola Tung, an actress known for her acting debut on drama series The Summer I Turned Pr ...

. In 1968–69, the team turned professional until 1972–73 when it focused on a youth squad. In 1978–79, the team beat the league giant

Seiko , commonly known as Seiko ( , ), is a Japanese maker of watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelry, and optical products. Founded in 1881 by Kintarō Hattori in Tokyo, Seiko introduced one of the first quartz watches and the ...

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

final, which avoided

from capturing all the 6 major trophies in the season. In 1979–80, the team quit the league due to financial problems. With the creation of the Hong Kong Third District Division, Yuen Long was reformed and entered the league in 2003. They were promoted to the First Division in the 2013–14 season, as champions of the Hong Kong Second Division, seven points ahead the runner-up Happy Valley. From 2013 to 2015, they were branded as I Sky Yuen Long due to the sponsorship from Simsen International Corporation Limited. Yuen Long were branded as KMB Yuen Long between 2015 and 2017 due to a sponsorship agreement with

Kowloon Motor Bus The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB) is a bus company operating franchised services in Hong Kong. It is the largest bus company in Hong Kong by fleet size and number of bus routes. It is a subsidiary of Transport International. ...

. The agreement was terminated in June 2017. Ahead of the 2017–18 season, Yuen Long announced a sponsorship agreement with Sun Bus and rebranded as Sun Bus Yuen Long. The club captured their first

in 50 years, when they defeated

Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

3–0 in the final. However, despite winning silverware, Sun Bus dropped their sponsorship of the club at the end of the season. Eventually on 24 May 2018, club chairman Wilson Wong announced that the club had secured enough funding to continue 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 ...

for 2018–19, although the club would have to rebuild their squad with mostly U-23 players. Ahead of the 2018–19 season, Yuen Long were confirmed as Best Union Yuen Long for sponsorship reasons. On 12 June 2020, after 7 consecutive seasons in the top-flight, Yuen Long confirmed their withdrawal from participating in the 2020–21 HKPL season due to lack of funds after the

2020 coronavirus pandemic in Hong Kong The COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Hong Kong on 23 January 2020. Co ...

. They would be playing in the

Hong Kong First Division League The Hong Kong First Division League () is the second-highest division in the Hong Kong football league system. Established in 1908, it is the third oldest in Asia. The league was formerly the highest division in Hong Kong until the formation o ...

in the new season.

Name history

*1960–2013: Yuen Long (元朗) *2013–2015: I Sky Yuen Long (天行元朗) *2015–2016: Yuen Long (元朗) *2016–2017：KMB Yuen Long (九巴元朗) *2017–2018：Sun Bus Yuen Long (陽光元朗) *2018–2020：Best Union Yuen Long (佳聯元朗) *2020–2021：Yuen Long (元朗) *2021–：Best Union Yuen Long (佳聯元朗)

Honours

League

* Hong Kong First Division ** Champions (1): 1962–63 * Hong Kong Second Division ** Champions (1):

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Cup

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 Pr ...

** Champions (2): 1967–68, 2017–18 ** Runners-up (1): 1964–65 *

Hong Kong FA Cup Hong Kong FA Cup () is a knockout cup competition in Hong Kong football, run by and named after The Hong Kong Football Association. The first edition of the competition was held in 1975, before then the cup was known as the Golden Jubilee Cup. Th ...

** Champions (1): 1978–79 ** Runners-up (1): 2015–16 *

Hong Kong Sapling Cup Hong Kong Football Association Sapling Cup (), more commonly known as Sapling Cup (), is a Hong Kong domestic football competition contested by all the teams in the Hong Kong Premier League. The objective of the Cup is to provide more playing opp ...

** Runners-up (1): 2018–19

Managers

Chan Ho Yin Chan Ho Yin (; born 25 February 1978 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong football coach and a former professional football player. Career Chan was a member of Hong Kong U-21 in 1990, participating in Gothia Cup and Dana Cup. For his club career, he ...

(2012–2015) *

Fung Hoi Man Fung Hoi Man (, born 12 March 1977) is a Hong Kong football coach and a former player. He holds an AFC A Licence and The FA International Coaching Licence. Club career Fung's club career was more or less unsuccessful. He played for Eastern and ...

(2015–2016) *

Tsang Chiu Tat Tsang Chiu Tat (; born 13 February 1989) is a Hong Kong football coach and a former professional football player. He is currently the assistant coach of Hong Kong Premier League club Lee Man. Club career After 8 years of professional footbal ...

(2016–2018) *

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 ...

(2018–2019) * Chan Man Chun (2019–2020) *

(2020) * Yip Tsz Chun (2020–)

Notable players

Chan Fat Chi Chan Fat Chi (, born 10 January 1957) is a former Hong Kong professional footballer who played as a forward. Career He played for Bulova, Seiko, South China and Instant-Dict. He was the Hong Kong Footballer of the Year in 1988 and 1989. He p ...

() *

Cheung Chi Doy Cheung Chi Doy (or transliterated as Chang Tse Da; born 30 March 1941) is a Hong Kong former professional footballer. Started his career in native Hong Kong, in the British Empire, he also played for English side Blackpool. In international lev ...

() *

Cheung Yiu Tung Cheung is a Cantonese romanization of several Chinese surnames, including the one written as in Traditional characters and in Simplified characters ( Jyutping: Zoeng1; Pinyin: '' Zhāng''; Wade–Giles: Chang, Vietnamese: Trương), and the one ...

() *

Leung Nang Yan Liang (Romanization used in China, ) is an East Asian surname of Chinese origin. The surname is often transliterated as Leung (in Hong Kong) or Leong (in Macau, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines) according to its Cantonese an ...

() * Win Won Soon

References

External links

Yuen Long
at HKFA {{Hong Kong First Division League Association football clubs established in 1959 Association football clubs established in 2013 Hong Kong Premier League clubs Yuen Long District 1959 establishments in Hong Kong 2013 establishments in Hong Kong

History

Name history

Honours

League

Cup

Managers

Notable players

See also

References

External links