{"id":194192,"date":"2025-12-20T03:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T03:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/194192\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T03:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T03:40:11","slug":"china-selects-hong-kong-handball-players-but-are-they-eligible-to-switch-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/194192\/","title":{"rendered":"China selects Hong Kong handball players \u2013 but are they eligible to switch team?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Two players in Hong Kong\u2019s handball team have been called up to China\u2019s training squad after their stand-out performances at the National Games, raising questions over their eligibility to potentially switch sporting allegiance.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Wong Kin and Toby Lin Yun-to caught the attention of China selectors during the Games, in which Hong Kong\u2019s part-time team stunned several professional sides on their way to the city\u2019s best-ever finish of fourth place.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But any plans for the duo to play for China may be complicated by rules governing eligibility for international sport \u2013 in which Hong Kong, although part of China, competes under its own flag.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">According to International Handball Federation rules, a player wishing to switch team must, in addition to holding the requisite citizenship, \u201chave been living in the territory of the federation concerned for more than 36 consecutive months\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Hong Kong\u2019s Wong Kin on the attack during the National Games. Photo: Elson Li\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/d9804ba6-b140-4447-b52b-d7c487415a31_53e62a7e.jpg\" title=\"Hong Kong\u2019s Wong Kin on the attack during the National Games. Photo: Elson Li\"\/>Hong Kong\u2019s Wong Kin on the attack during the National Games. Photo: Elson Li<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">They also must not have played for another international team in the three years preceding their first appearance for their new team in an official match. Official fixtures include those in global or continental championships, or qualifying matches for those.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hong Kong\u2019s squad, including Wong and Lin, are preparing for the Asian Championships, which will take place in Kuwait from January 15 to 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two players in Hong Kong\u2019s handball team have been called up to China\u2019s training squad after their stand-out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[110651,110641,5560,1657,110650,110656,1765,110642,3448,110647,110643,110644,110646,110649,110645,110655,85,110648,46,54488,110653,105,110652,110654],"class_list":["post-194192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-asian-championships-in-kuwait","tag-athlete-switch-country","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-chinese-super-league","tag-dai-weijun","tag-guangdong","tag-hing-kong-player-represent-china","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-athletes-china","tag-hong-kong-international-sport","tag-hong-kong-part-of-china","tag-hong-kong-sport","tag-hong-kong-sports-institute","tag-hong-kong-status-sport","tag-hui-man-pong","tag-il","tag-international-eligibility","tag-israel","tag-national-games","tag-pivot-wong-kin","tag-sports","tag-team-hong-kong","tag-toby-lin-yun-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}