Punish Ice Hockey Body And Move On: Sports Minister

The Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kevin Yeung, on Sunday said it's time for sports authorities to impose an appropriate penalty on the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association over an anthem blunder, and to draw a line under the row.

The Sports Federation and Olympic Committee (SF&OC) and the ice hockey body have been at loggerheads over the federation's investigation into the incident, in which organisers of an ice hockey tournament in Bosnia played a protest song instead of the national anthem in February.

Yeung said the ice hockey association had admitted failing to follow all the regulations concerning the handling of the anthem in the 11-page report on the incident that it submitted to the SF&OC on Thursday.

"At a tournament held in Romania in April, the ice hockey association strictly followed regulations and successfully prevented a wrong anthem from being played. This shows that the association can follow our regulations at international competitions to prevent similar incidents," he said.

"We will ask the SF&OC to impose an appropriate penalty on the ice hockey association, and this incident should come to an end."

Yeung said he will also ask the SF&OC to work with the ice hockey body to improve corporate governance.

But the sports minister did not say what an "appropriate penalty" might be.

The SF&OC has initiated suspension proceedings against the ice hockey body. On Friday, it criticised ice hockey officials for supplying what it said was false information in its final report into the Bosnia incident.

The Ice Hockey Association denied the report contained false information, and insisted that it did not handle the national anthem in an "undignified" way.

The Vice-president of the SF&OC, Kenneth Fok, on Saturday urged the public to turn its attention to how to prevent further blunders involving the national anthem, rather than pointing fingers over the Sarajevo incident.