Sports chief Kevin Yeung said on Saturday that the government agrees with the top sports committee in the SAR that there have been problems with the city's ice hockey association's handling of a recent national anthem blunder.

His remarks follow finger-pointing between the committee and the association. On Tuesday, the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee (SF&OC) announced that it had initiated suspension proceedings against the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association over the latest anthem error. A strongly worded statement from the association was issued two days later, saying that it did not feel respected by the committee, which it said had all along been hoping to prove the sports body was at fault.

“When dealing with this incident, we see that the managing leaders of the ice hockey association did not give appropriate attention to the handling of the national anthem," the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism said on an RTHK programme.

"This also reflects some issues with its internal management. Therefore, we support the measures taken by the SF&OC to start a proceeding that may lead to the temporary suspension of the membership of the ice hockey association.”

When asked if the government had directly communicated with the association, Yeung said that every sports association in the SAR has a direct relationship with the SF&OC. He added that the government is responsible for providing resources but rarely intervenes in the daily operations of sports federations.

Yeung told reporters after being interviewed on another radio programme that if the association fails to submit a satisfactory proposal to address its problems, the government may consider reducing the subsidies it provides to the association, although he did not specify say where exactly the cuts would be made.

“We will not discuss in detail the spending of all the budget of the ice hockey association openly,” he said, although he also stated that the government is aware of how the association plans to spend its money as every sports association must submit budget proposals yearly.

He added: “If we have to cut some of the budgets at the end, which we do not really want to happen... We will ensure that the athletes will be able to continue to participate in international competitions and also their training will not be affected."

In response to Yeung's comments, the ice hockey association said in a statement that any cuts to subsidies would affect athlete training and development. It said its chairman, secretary-general, and executive committee members are volunteers, and that all funding is used for hiring clerks, training, competitions, attending overseas meetings and administrative costs such as auditing fees.
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Last updated: 2022-MM-DD HKT 17:39