Govt to take 'solemn approach' in anthem gaffe
The government official in charge of sports affairs on Sunday said authorities would adopt a 'solemn and severe' approach to handle the latest national anthem blunder at an ice hockey game in Bosnia if investigations showed the Hong Kong team was at fault. Kevin Yeung, the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, said it is unacceptable that a wrong song had been played in place of the national anthem on multiple occasions. A song linked to the 2019 protests was played again in place of March of the Volunteers, after Hong Kong beat Iran at the Ice Hockey World Championships in Sarajevo about two weeks ago. Yeung said authorities expect Hong Kong teams to follow guidelines issued earlier to prevent the same mistake from happening again. He said the government needs to know if the SAR's ice hockey team followed the guidelines regarding the playing of the anthem, and would 'solemnly' and 'severely' deal with the matter if they had not. He said the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee (SF&OC) is due to hand in a final report on the incident to the government, and the authorities would consider imposing sanctions after receiving it. In a preliminary report, SF&OC accused the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association of failing to explain when and where the right version of the anthem was provided to tournament organisers. The federation also said the association breached rules by sending a WhatsApp message to athletes about what to do if the anthem is not played correctly, when the rules say a proper briefing should be held.