The absence of a football powerhouse from a top-tier secondary school tournament could hinder young prospects from pursuing a professional career, a commentator said on Friday. In a shocking revelation, Yan Chai Hospital Tung Chi Ying Memorial Secondary School announced on Wednesday that it had missed the application deadline for the annual inter-school sports competitions due to "administrative negligence". School principal Wong Yau-kit made a teary appeal to the organisers for leniency the following day, saying students shouldn't be punished for a teacher's mistake. While the blunder affected multiple sports at Tung Chi Ying, the biggest losers were its footballers, who are 17-time reigning Sha Tin and Sai Kung champions and six-time winners of the Jing Ying tournament - the top competition for the city's schools. Notable alumni include current and former SAR representatives Max Poon, Pong Cheuk-hei and Au Yeung Yiu-chung. RTHK's Asia football correspondent, Chris KL Lau pointed out budding players have long used the tournament to showcase their skills and impress scouts. "The school is tied to Kitchee, the professional club. Basically Kitchee have offered scholarships to some of the students in the past and possibly now as well," he said. Lau added some students attend classes in the morning and train in the afternoon with Kitchee players. He insists "it's not just high-school football". New People's Party lawmaker Adrian Ho said schools should be diligent in meeting deadlines, but believes a transparent appeal process should be put in place to deal with similar incidents in the future. "I'm hoping that there is some kind of leniency towards it. However, I think it's also best to seek other schools' opinion who had registered on time to get a consensus that this can be done for this particular one time," he said. "Because otherwise, if you open the door for such mistakes, it might not be a good practice going forward." RTHK has reached out to the Schools Sports Federation of Hong Kong, China for comment.
