HKFC Soccer Sevens

Founded	1999
Number of teams	16 Main, 10 Masters
Current champions	Brighton & Hove Albion
Most successful club(s)	Aston Villa (7 titles) [1]
Website	http://www.hksoccersevens.com/
2024

The HKFC Soccer Sevens or Hong Kong Soccer Sevens, known as the HKFC Standard Chartered Soccer Sevens for sponsorship purposes, ^[2] is an annual invitational seven-a-side football tournament which is organised and hosted by Hong Kong Football Club. ^[3] Held since 1999, many young professional players have made a name for themselves in the tournament.

The competition ran from 1999 to 2019, with a break due to the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003. In 2020, the organisers confirmed that the competition would not be happening that year due to the ongoing issues in Hong Kong - promising to be back in 2021, but this did not happen with the tournament's website going offline. ^[4] In 2023, the organisers confirmed that the competition would return after a four-year hiatus. ^[5]

In 2024, the organisers announced that a women's edition of the tournament would take place alongside the men's. ^[6]

Format

• The event features two competitions, a Main Tournament and Masters Tournament. The 16-team Main Tournament is open age group (players must be at least 16) and features mostly youth and academy teams from clubs in Europe playing against more senior players from leagues around Asia. ^[7]
• The 10-team Masters Tournament is for players aged 35 and over and features former players from Europe's top leagues. Players such as Jürgen Klinsmann, John Barnes, Andy Cole, Matt Le Tissier, Des Walker, Didier Six, Mustapha Hadji, Peter Beardsley, Craig Armstrong, David Johnson, Des Lyttle, Jason Lee, and Michael Thomas have competed in this category.
• Each game has two seven-minute halves with a one-minute half-time break, while the finals are 10 minutes each half with a three-minute break at half-time.
• There are two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage. In the Main group stage, teams compete within four groups of four teams each. Each group plays a round-robin tournament, in which each team is scheduled for three matches against other teams in the same group. The top two teams from each group advance to the Cup knockout stage while the bottom two advance to the Plate knockout stage. In the Masters Tournament, the 12 teams are split into three groups of four teams.
• The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with penalty shootouts and sudden death used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the quarter-finals in which the third-placed team plays against the fourth-placed team in Plate and the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group in Cup. This is followed by the semi-finals and the final. ^[7]
• The Main Tournament has an additional Shield competition which is contested by the four losing teams of the Cup quarter-finals. The Shield is also a single-elimination tournament of similar format. The Cup is regarded as the highest honour, followed by the Shield and Plate.

Past winners

Men

Source ^[8]

Season	Title Sponsor	Main Cup	Main Shield	Main Plate	Masters Cup	Player of the Tournament
1999	None	Blackburn Rovers			Carling All Stars	Jon-Paul McGovern
2000	Philips Lighting	Instant Dict			Lorenz All Stars	Leon Knight
2001	Philips Lighting	Arsenal			Instant Dict Veterans	Liam Chilvers
2002	Philips Lighting	Aston Villa [1]			Philips All Stars	Jonathan Bewers
2003	Not Held due to SARS outbreak [9]
2004	Philips Lighting	Aston Villa [1]			Philips All Stars	Stephen Cooke
2005	Philips Lighting	Urawa Red Diamonds		Kitchee	Lorenz All Stars	Sergio Escudero
2006	Philips Lighting	Urawa Red Diamonds			Lorenz All Stars	Gabriel Agbonlahor
2007	Philips Lighting	Aston Villa			Lorenz All Stars	Zoltán Stieber
2008	Philips Lighting	Aston Villa [1]	Urawa Red Diamonds	PSV Eindhoven	Rangers Legends	Barry Bannan
2009	IP Global	Celtic	Daejeon Citizen	Birmingham City	Golden Rainbow	Paul McGowan
2010	IP Global	Aston Villa [1]	Ajax	Eastleigh	Kokusai F.C. Tokyo	Andrew Shinnie
2011	Citibank	Kitchee	Daejeon Citizen	HKFC Captain's Select	Top Class F.C.	Ubay Luzardo
2012	Citibank	Newcastle United	Leicester City	West Ham United	Aegon AFC All Stars	Daniel Johnson
2013	Citibank	Leicester City	Aston Villa	Hong Kong Rangers	Rangers All Stars	Harry Panayiotou
2014	Citibank	Manchester City	Aston Villa	Leicester City	Aegon Ajax All Stars	Brandon Barker
2015	Citibank	Atlético Madrid	Hong Kong Rangers	Hong Kong FC	USRC-BTS	Samuel Sáiz
2016	Citi	Aston Villa	Leicester City	Stoke City	Citi All Stars	Khalid Abdo
2017	Citi	Leicester City	West Ham United	Bayer Leverkusen	Citi All Stars	Josh Eppiah
2018	Citi	Newcastle United	Aston Villa	Newcastle Jets	Discovery Bay	Víctor Fernández
2019	Citi	Newcastle United	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Aston Villa	Wallsend Boys Club	Elias Sørensen
2020	Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests [10]
2021
2022
2023	Citi [11]	Aston Villa	Newcastle United	Rangers	Wallsend Boys Club	Omari Kellyman
2024	Standard Chartered	Brighton & Hove Albion	Leicester City	Yokohama F. Marinos	PFA All Stars

Women

Year	Title Sponsor	Cup Winner	Plate Winner	Player of the Tournament
2024	Standard Chartered	Chelsea FC Soccer School	Hong Kong Football Club

Records

Source: ^[8]

Team	Cup Wins	Shield Wins	Plate Wins
Aston Villa	7 (2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2016, 2023)	3 (2013, 2014, 2018)	1 (2019)
Newcastle United	3 (2012, 2018, 2019)	1 (2023)	0
Leicester City	2 (2013, 2017)	3 (2012, 2016, 2024)	1 (2014)
Urawa Red Diamonds	2 (2005, 2006)	1 (2008)	0
Kitchee	1 (2011)	0	1 (2005)
Arsenal	1 (2001)	0	0
Atlético Madrid	1 (2015)	0	0
Blackburn Rovers	1 (1999)	0	0
Brighton & Hove Albion	1 (2024)	0	0
Celtic	1 (2009)	0	0
Instant Dict	1 (2000)	0	0
Manchester City	1 (2014)	0	0
Daejeon Citizen	0	2 (2009, 2011)	0
Hong Kong Rangers	0	1 (2015)	1 (2013)
West Ham United	0	1 (2017)	1 (2012)
Ajax	0	1 (2010)	0
Wolverhampton Wanderers	0	1 (2019)	0
Bayer Leverkusen	0	0	1 (2017)
Birmingham City	0	0	1 (2009)
Eastleigh	0	0	1 (2010)
Hong Kong FC	0	0	1 (2015)
HKFC Captain's Select	0	0	1 (2011)
Newcastle Jets	0	0	1 (2018)
PSV Eindhoven	0	0	1 (2008)
Rangers	0	0	1 (2023)
Stoke City	0	0	1 (2016)
Yokohama F. Marinos	0	0	1 (2024)

References

1. "Jones: I'll never forget Gabby's performances in Hong Kong Sevens". Aston Villa F.C. Official Website. June 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2013-07-15.
2. "Press Release: Standard Chartered Priority Private Takes Centre Stage as Title Sponsor for the 2024 HKFC Soccer Sevens" (PDF). HK Soccer Sevens. 6 March 2024. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
3. South China Morning Post - Plenty of Potential for Hong Kong Soccer Sevens. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
4. "Hong Kong Soccer Sevens cancelled amid coronavirus". South China Morning Post. 2020-02-06. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
5. "'Iconic' Hong Kong Soccer Sevens returns in May after 4-year hiatus". South China Morning Post. 2023-02-06. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
6. "Aston Villa to defend Hong Kong Soccer Sevens as top English clubs are confirmed". South China Morning Post. 2024-03-28. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
7. "HKFC Citi Soccer Sevens Rules". HKFC Soccer Sevens. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
8. "Champions". HKFC Citi Soccer Sevens. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
9. Celtic Programmes Online - CELTIC IN THE HKFC INTERNATIONAL SOCCER SEVENS
10. "The 2020 edition of the HKFC Citi Soccer Sevens has been cancelled due to the ongoing issues in Hong Kong". HKFC Soccer Sevens. 13 February 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
11. "Aston Villa, Newcastle among 5 Premier League clubs to play in Hong Kong". South China Morning Post. 2023-04-21. Retrieved 2023-04-22.

External links

• Hong Kong Soccer Sevens Official Website