The Passport Rule

Athletes need to hold the passport of the country they represent."

After the 2013 East Asian Game, a “passport rule” has been put into practice by the Federation of International Hockey (FIH) to follow the new International Olympic Council (IOC) guidelines. And this had affected the hockey performance.

The new eligibility requires "athletes to hold the passport of the country they represent.” Hong Kong men's team was therefore not qualified for the 2014 Incheon Asian Games - the first time in two decades - because eight regular players were missing out in the squad. In the past, Hong Kong team players will only have to prove their residency by a permanent Hong Kong ID card.

READ MORE: Hong Kong miss out on Asian Games hockey berth for first time in two decades, by the South China Morning Post

The passport rule was proposed to avoid athletes from being a “migrant labour”, and make sure no one will be trading or offering financial rewards for representing another country to compete.

Immigrant athletes is always an issue to many countries’ local athletes, as the immigrant are always the elites and may have developed their skills in a country which valued that particular sports, hindering the local’s path to professional sports.

U.S

READ MORE: Swapping Passports in Pursuit of Olympic Medals, by the New York Times

Hong Kong

According to the HKSAR Immigration Department, only Hong Kong permanent resident and a Chinese citizen is eligible to be a passport holder. For residents who were born and raised in Hong Kong but without Chinese descent, they were not a valid applicant unless naturalise to be a Chinese nation, which will take further application procedure with the HKSAR government as well as the Chinese government.

But this is not as straightforward as it sounds. It is not easy for athletes to renounce their native citizenship. Firstly, Hong Kong is not a sports hub that the teams are not guaranteed to qualify in major events; secondly, their places in the squad are not sealed, and their athlete life will only last for around a decade.

Some affected hockey players, such as New Zealander Hannah Duley, chose to keep her nationality. Her relatives were all staying in New Zealand and she “could not afford to lose the family for the Hong Kong team.”

APPLICATION

FOR HKSAR PASSPORT

Article 7

Foreign nationals or stateless persons who are willing to abide by China’s constitution and laws and who meet one of the following conditions may be naturalised upon approval of their applications:

they are near relatives of Chinese nationals;
they have settled in China; or
they have other legitimate reasons.

Article 8

Any person who applies for naturalisation as a Chinese national shall acquire Chinese nationality upon approval of his application; a person whose application for naturalisation as a Chinese national has been approved shall not retain foreign nationality.

However, even willing to give up their other passports, it may not a way out for every one.

Hong Kong-born and raised French skier Alexander Glavatsky-Yeadon failed to apply the passport because he has no Chinese descent.

READ MORE: Hong Kong-born skier shut out of Winter Olympics over passport issue, by the South China Morning Post

The only one exceptional case would be retired Olympic swimmer Hannah Wilson, who had successfully gained a special dispensation from the IOC and participated in the 2004 Athens Olympic and 2008 Beijing Olympic with her British passport. She was only 15 years old at that time and could not give up her British passport even wanted.

Later in 2009, she gave up her British identity and got a Hong Kong Passport for the University Games in Belgrade and the 2012 London Olympics.

Numbers of hockey players were affected at the peak period of their sport life. They can now only play in the premier division in open league, but could not progress into any higher level of hockey.

Pakistani player Arif Al, also the current Hong Kong women’s team coach, said it did not only put “the players hard work into the sewer’, but also deprive the cultural diversity from the team. “A pakistani, a British, or a Hongkonger will always have different playing styles, and such cultural diversity had made the team unique and strong.”

The HKHA men’s section is not satisfied with such changes, but the women’s section is rather optimistic.

Amy Lip Wai-ting from the HKHA said there were very little chance for local players to get into the team in the old days because foreign players are doing so much better. “They studied in international schools and they learn the sports in a much earlier age.”

Only after the implementation of passport rule, they were given opportunities to expose themselves into international matches and prove their ability.

And by this transitional time, HKHA is trying to introduce as much young local players as possible, holding regular training session for the under 18 squad and organizing competitions for youth teams. Such as the Girls Youth Cup in 2014, the 2016 Macau-Hong Kong Interport, etc.