Southern District FC

Southern District Recreation & Sports Assn Ltd (Chinese: 南區足球會), commonly known as Southern and currently known for sponsorship reasons as Kwoon Chung Southern, is a professional football club based in Southern District, Hong Kong. They currently compete in the Hong Kong Premier League.

Southern
Full nameSouthern District Recreation & Sports Assn Ltd
Nickname(s)The Aberdeeners
Founded2002
GroundAberdeen Sports Ground
Capacity4,500
PresidentMatthew Wong
ChairmanChan Man Chun
Head CoachZesh Rehman
LeagueHong Kong Premier League
2019–205th
WebsiteClub website

History

Southern District entered the newly formed Hong Kong Third District Division during the 2002–03 season. However, the team did not reach the Hong Kong Third Division League Final Round and thus did not get promotion in the first few years of their history.

In the 2006–07 season, they reached the Final Round for the first time since the club was formed. They were the runners up of the Third District Division and qualified for the Final Round, however, they could not get promotion as they only managed to gain two points.

In the 2007–08 season, they retained last season's good performance, reached the Final Round again as they were again the 1st runner-up of Third District Division League, 9 points behind Shatin. Unfortunately, they could not gain the promotion again as they were 4 points behind the promotion places.

In the 2008–09 season, they could not qualify for the Final Round as they only placed at 4th of Third District Division.

They were finally promoted to the Hong Kong Second Division for the first time in the 2009–10 season. They were the 1st runner-up of the Third District Division League and competed with the other 3 teams in the Final Round for promotion. Although they only placed at 3rd in the final round, Eastern decided not to accept promotion and the right to be promoted was passed to Southern who did accept.

They successfully avoided relegation and stayed in the Second Division during their first season. They were the 4th out of 12 teams, 10 points behind the champions Sham Shui Po. On the other hand, they won their first trophy since their formation on 9 January 2011. They defeated Double Flower in the final of Hong Kong Junior Shield at Hong Kong Stadium.

They were promoted to the Hong Kong First Division for the first time in the 2011–12 season, as they were the 1st runner-up of the Hong Kong Second Division, three points behind champions Rangers.

They were branded as Royal Southern in the 2013–14 season, and finished 4th out of 12 teams. However, the club chose to self-relegate after the end of the season.

They returned to the top flight in the 2015–16 season. Starting from this season, the club was rebranded as Kwoon Chung Southern due to sponsorship reasons.

In 2016–17, Southern finished third in the table, their highest position in club history.

Southern matched their table position from 2016–17 with another third-place finish in 2018–19. The club also reached the finals of Hong Kong FA Cup for the first time, losing 2–0 to Kitchee.

Name history

  • 2002–2013: Southern (南區)
  • 2013–2014: Royal Southern (皇室南區)
  • 2014–2015: Southern (南區)
  • 2015–: Kwoon Chung Southern (冠忠南區)

Stadium

Aberdeen Sports Ground viewed from Bennet's Hill

Since 2007, Southern have played their home games at Aberdeen Sports Ground. They began playing their home games there during their days in the Hong Kong Third District Division.

After Southern was promoted to the Hong Kong First Division, the club have continued to use Aberdeen Sports Ground as their home stadium.

In September of 2018, the canopy of the main grandstand at Aberdeen Sports Ground was damaged due to Typhoon Mangkhut.[1] Although a temporary canopy was erected over the opposite grandstand in order to allow Southern to continue to use the stadium for the remainder of the 2018–19 season, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department determined that installation of a new canopy on the main grandstand was to begin in June of 2019.[2] As the renovations were scheduled to last until the end of March 2020, Southern applied to use Mong Kok Stadium as their home stadium for the 2019–20 season.[3]

Team staff

Position Staff
Head coach Zesh Rehman
Assistant coach Pui Ho Wang
Assistant coach Sham Kwok Fai
Assistant coach Wong Tsz Him
Goalkeeping coach Marc Gamon
Physiotherapist Ella Yeung
Physiotherapist Fong Ho Kee

Source:

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK  HKG Choy Tsz To
4 DF  JPN Kota Kawase FP
6 DF  PAK Zesh Rehman FP
7 FW  BRA Stefan Pereira FP
8 MF  HKG Lau Ho Lam
10 MF  POR Pedro Mendes FP
11 FW  JPN Shu Sasaki (captain) FP
12 DF  HKG Hui Wang Fung
13 FW  HKG Chan Kwong Ho
14 FW  HKG James Ha
17 FW  AUS Matthew Cahill FP (on loan from Central Coast Mariners)
18 DF  HKG Jack Sealy
No. Pos. Nation Player
19 DF  IDN Stefan Antonić LP
20 DF  BRA Beto LP
21 MF  HKG Lam Chi Fung
22 MF  HKG Cheng Chun Wang
24 MF  HKG Toby Down (on loan from Eastern)
25 GK  HKG Brett Warning
26 MF  HKG Chan Hoi Pak
27 MF  HKG Jordan Lam
29 GK  HKG Tse Tak Him
34 DF  HKG Chan Kong Pan
MF  HKG Chan Siu Kwan

Remarks:
LP These players are registered as local players in Hong Kong domestic football competitions.
FP These players are registered as foreign players.

Reserve team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
MF  HKG Lo Wai Tat
 HKG Tsang Yik Shun
 HKG Chan Chun Lok Lochlan
 HKG Mak Julian Sheng
 HKG Kwan Hei Shum
 HKG Choi Shan Lun Cameron
 HKG Poon King Him Timothy
No. Pos. Nation Player
 HKG Wong Ho Yin
 HKG Chan Pui Kei
 HKG Lu Hong Wa
 HKG Mok Po Yin
 HKG Tam Chi Heng
 HKG Hardikpreet Singh
 HKG Yueng Man Nok

Season-to-season record

Season Tier Division Teams Position Home Stadium Attendance/G FA Cup Senior Shield League Cup Sapling Cup
2002–03 3 Third District Division 13
2003–04 3 Third District Division
2004–05 3 Third District Division
2005–06 3 Third District Division
2006–07 3 Third District Division 17 2
2007–08 3 Third District Division 17 2
2008–09 3 Third District Division 15 4
2009–10 3 Third District Division 14 2
2010–11 2 Second Division 12 6
2011–12 2 Second Division 12 2
2012–13 1 First Division 10 4 Aberdeen Sports Ground 554 First Round Semi-finals
2013–14 1 First Division 12 4 Aberdeen Sports Ground
Mong Kok Stadium
434 Semi-finals Semi-finals
2014–15 2 First Division 15 3 First Round
2015–16 1 Premier League 9 4 Aberdeen Sports Ground 489 Semi-finals Runner-up Group Stage Group Stage
2016–17 1 Premier League 11 3 Aberdeen Sports Ground 532 Semi-finals Semi-finals Semi-finals
2017–18 1 Premier League 10 5 Aberdeen Sports Ground 493 Semi-finals Semi-finals Group Stage
2018–19 1 Premier League 10 3 Aberdeen Sports Ground 827 Runner-up Quarter-finals Group Stage
2019–20 1 Premier League 10 5 Mong Kok Stadium 861 Quarter-finals Quarter-finals Runner-up

Note:

  1st or Champions   2nd or Runner-up   3rd place   Promotion   Relegation

Honours

League

Runners-up (1): 2011–12
Runners-up (3): 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10

Cup competitions

Runners-up (1): 2018–19
Runners-up (1): 2015–16
Runners-up (1): 2019–20
Champions (1): 2010–11

Managers

eSports

Southern District is the first Hong Kong football club of creating an eSports department. By partnering with Nova eSports, they signed Ronnie Yau as a FIFA player and Kevin Lau as a Pro Evolution Soccer player.[4]

References

  1. White, Jonathan. "Typhoon Mangkhut: Hong Kong sport counts the cost of damage to facilities as repairs begin". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  2. "Notice". Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  3. "「華人射手」落選港足? 夏志明解畫:望球會與港隊盡早溝通". Sportsroad.hk. Retrieved 21 May 2019. (in Chinese)
  4. "【港超聯賽】南區電競隊Kevin加入做新兵 師兄Ronnie:職業之路不易行" (in Chinese). UPower. 11 July 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
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