HK's sports minister urges sports federation to end row over ice hockey anthem blunder

Hong Kong's sports minister has urged the city’s top sports federation to put an end to an anthem blunder row by punishing Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association (HKIHA) and initiating measures to improve governance issues.

This comes after HKIHA submitted a report on the anthem blunders occurred at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division III held in Bosnia on 28 February. After Hong Kong team defeated the Iran team, the protest song Glory to Hong Kong was played instead of the correct version of national anthem. HKIHA admitted that it had failed to fully follow all the regulations to ensure the correct anthem was played. The row between the two bodies then escalated after HKIHA said the leader of the Hong Kong women's ice hockey team failed to check if the correct anthem was played due to the limitation of the venue and lack of clerical staff. 

Don't miss: Hong Kong women’s ice hockey team reassures there would be no further anthem blunders

The secretary for culture, sports and tourism, Kevin Yeung, told local press on 7 May that  the government will request the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China (SF&OC) to impose appropriate penalty on the HKIHA over the anthem blunder, and to put an end to the incident.

“It is an obvious fact that the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association did not fully follow the guidelines and take sufficient measures to ensure that the organisers played the national anthem correctly. We will ask the SF&OC to impose an appropriate penalty on the ice hockey association, and the incident of playing the wrong national anthem should come to an end," Yeung said.

“I am asking the federation to work with the association to address the governance issues as soon as possible. They should discuss each of the problems in detail, and identify and implement proposals for improvements, as well as submit a report to the government as soon as possible," he added. 

Another focus is the issue of governance within the HKIHA, according to Yeung. "Every year, the government devotes huge resources to the promotion of sports, and through sports association, it subsidises athletes' training and participation in competitions, and promotes related sports in society. The association uses public funds and bears heavy responsibilities. Therefore, a good governance is necessary. Lack of good governance will only waste the efforts of athletes and hinder the promotion of related sports," Yeung added.

Meanwhile, vice-president of the SF&OC Kenneth Fok also urged the public to focus on how to prevent further blunders involving the national anthem, rather than "pointing fingers" over a previous incident.

"I really hope the public opinion can return to discussing how to better plug loopholes in national security. I saw that a lot of public opinion has recently deviated from this original intention and started to discuss many other things, including allegations against organisations, and even individuals," Fok told reporters at a press event.

This is not the first anthem blunder related to international sports events. Back in December last year, the Hong Kong Baseball Association has filed a report to the police after finding out the Chinese national anthem in a video of a match in Taiwan in 2010 was replaced with a song related to the 2019 protests.

Photo credit: YouTube channel @ Hokejaški Savez Bosne i Hercegovine

Related articles:

Hong Kong women’s ice hockey team reassures there would be no further anthem blunders
HK sports federation urges government to push Google again over another anthem blunder
HK plans to improve SEO for government sites following anthem blunders
Google defends decision to refuse HK's request of altering anthem search results