It's a wrap - 2024 HKFC Standard Chartered Soccer Sevens

The HKFC Standard Chartered Soccer Sevens -- celebrating its 25th anniversary -- wrapped up on Sunday, the 26th of May.  Under the new stewardship of Sevens Tournament Director, Scott Semple and under the watchful eye of Chairman, Tony Bratsanos, the event lived up to its billing as a Hong Kong Mega Event. 

Moving to the competition itself, UK based teams, Brighton & Hove Albion, West Ham United, Fulham, Newcastle United, Leicester City, Glasgow Rangers, Aston Villa were joined by local teams Kowloon Cricket Club, Ampcontrol Discovery Bay, Tai Po, BC Rangers, a Hong Kong China Representative Side, Yokohama F. Marinos from Japan, Yau Yee League Select, and our four HKFC teams.  Both Singapore Cricket Club and Singapore Football Club each fielded an Open and Masters team in the competition and lastly, the Wallsend Boys Club and the PFA All-Stars made up of stars of yesteryear completed the twenty-four teams in total with sixteen teams competing in the Main Competition and eight in the Masters Competition.  

After last year's successful exhibition game, where our HKFC Women’s team took on a Hong Kong Select team, this year saw the introduction of a Women’s competition with eight teams participating including Kitchee, Macau’s national team, Chelsea Soccer School, and our very own Women’s Team. 

Lastly, as well as a series of Junior Soccer Sevens Finals, we also had the annual HKFC Crusaders exhibition match which was loudly cheered on by the capacity crowd. The HKFC Crusaders is our community soccer initiative for players with intellectual and / or physical disabilities. 

The PFA All Stars with former professionals such as Barry Hayles, Lee Mansell, Scott McGleish, Luis Boa Morte, Leroy Lita, and Jamie Cureton were the eventual winners of the Masters Cup in a thrilling match against Singapore Football Club.  

Ampcontrol Discovery Bay took the Masters Plate on penalties against Kowloon Cricket Club.  

Leicester City were the Sean Browne Shield Winners with a 2-1 win over Rangers in a reverse of last year's Shield final. 

In the inaugural Women’s Tournament, Chelsea won the Cup with a penalty shootout against Kitchee and our HKFC Women’s team proudly took the Plate with a tight 1-0 win over neighbours' Macau.  

Brighton & Hove Albion were the winners of the Main Cup Competition with a commanding win over last year's Cup Champions Aston Villa. They did it the hard way with a group loss to local side HK Rangers and a draw with tournament debutants Yokohama F. Marinos, but they were able to prevail at the 'business end’ of the tournament. This win represents Brighton and Hove Albion’s first Cup win, and they celebrated in style.  

The event ended with the Gala dinner on Sunday night where a video of every goal from the tournament was shown on video with the winning teams again invited up to the stage to receive their awards. They were cheered by their peers in the audience, capping off a fantastic tournament.  

More Photos, please click here.