Team Hong Kong finishes 29th at IQA World Cup 2025

Team Hong Kong participated in the IQA World Cup 2025 from 11 to 13 July in Brussels-Tubize, Belgium. After playing 7 matches, Hong Kong finished 29th in the tournament.

The squad

Team Hong Kong for the IQA World Cup 2025 consists of 23 quadball players who play locally in Hong Kong, as well as in Canada, the Netherlands, Poland, the United States, and the UK. This marks the largest squad we have ever sent.

Team Hong Kong is again coached by Alex LAI (#88), a Canada-based player who played for Hong Kong in the IQA World Cup 2023 and the Quadball Nations Cup II in 2024. He is assisted by Chris LAU (#26), the Co-Founder of the Hong Kong Quadball Association, who is also the team’s Manager. Jessie HO (#67) served as the Captain, and Joanne LAM (#8) served as the Vice-Captain.

Many players on Team Hong Kong have represented the team in previous international quadball tournaments, including the European Games 2020, the IQA World Cup 2023, and the Quadball Nations Cup II in 2024. They include Gordon CHOI (#4), CHENG Lik Kan (#6), TO Wing Hei (#9), CHOW Tsun Hin (#10), Michael LI (#11), Charles CHEANG (#12), Ema SHIROMA-CHAO (#14), Kimberley HUANG (#19), Nicholas FU (#25), Winco LEUNG (#29), Jong Yu CHEUNG (#44), Liona LI (#56), Timothy LUK (#65) and Queenie WONG (#99).

Five players made their debut for Team Hong Kong in this tournament. They are Thomas NG (#13), Gabriel KWOK (#17), Louisa CHENG (#18), Aidan NG (#21) and Noah LI (#54).

The jerseys and jacket

The specially designed home and away jerseys for this World Cup were created by team players Charles CHEANG and CHOW Tsun Hin, respectively. The white home jersey features red ripple patterns that symbolise Hong Kong players coming together from all over the world, united in a common goal and relentless determination.

The blue away jersey evokes Hong Kong’s historical spirit, using a sailboat motif to represent the solidarity and legendary stories under Lion Rock, transcending geographical boundaries under the same sky.

The new jacket, also a design by Charles, features the text “HONG KONG” atop a pixelated red gradient on the front, and a bauhinia and the Chinese character “魁” on the back, highlighting the team’s determination to perform well in international quadball tournaments.

Pre-tournament training and scrimmage

The team gathered in Belgium from 7 July and had training sessions on 8 and 9 July. On 9 July, the team had a scrimmage with Team India as part of the training.

The matches

Team Hong Kong is drawn into Pool B with Belgium, Catalonia, Mexico and Spain, and played a single round-robin of matches with these teams on the first and second day of the World Cup.

In the first match, Hong Kong narrowly lost to Catalonia by a flag catch. Unfortunately, the team's key player, Michael LI, was also injured during this match.

Hong Kong then faced tough opponents, Belgium (who went on to become the Champion of this year's World Cup) and Spain (who came in 11th place), losing by 30 to 220* and 60 to 160*, respectively.

Despite these challenges, Joanne LAM, CHOW Tsun Hin, Gabriel KWOK, Nicholas FU and Alex LAI managed to score some goals! We are also honoured to have some players' parents travelling to Belgium to support the team!

In the final group match against Mexico on the second day, Kimberly Huang (#19) managed to narrow the score to 130*-150 with a snitch (flag) catch during an intense overtime battle. However, Hong Kong was narrowly defeated with a final score of 140*-180. This match lasted 46 minutes, making it the longest of all the matches played.

After the group stage, Hong Kong ranked 28th overall and advanced to the round of 16 qualifier in the afternoon, where they faced France, who eventually finished 6th in the tournament.

Jessie HO, our team captain, managed to score a goal. Hong Kong lost the match by a score of 10-250*, placing them in the 28th to 31st placement bracket.

On the last day of the tournament, Hong Kong defeated Switzerland 150:120* in a gripping overtime match lasting nearly 40 minutes, before losing 70:170* to Poland in the 28th-place final, finishing 29th.

Team Manager and Assistant Coach Chris LAU is glad that Team Hong Kong achieved its first win in the Quadball World Cup since 2018, despite facing tough opponents in the pool play and losing a key player during the first match due to injury. He is confident that Team Hong Kong will continue to develop and achieve better results in the next tournament.

Head Coach Alex LAI reflected that it is a great achievement that Hong Kong is able to play at the premier international tournament, despite being a small city. Every player approached every offence and defence with focus and determination, demonstrating the Lion Rock spirit of unity and perseverance. The team’s progress from his first coaching experience at the Quadball Nations Cup 2024 is obvious. Lai also thanked the Hong Kong fans for their support, as well as parents who travelled from as far as North America to cheer for their children, becoming the team’s strongest backbone at the World Cup.