‘Stay alert to promises made by sports bodies’

Sports sector lawmaker Kenneth Fok on Wednesday urged young athletes and their parents to remain vigilant when signing contracts with sports bodies.

This came after the family of a young skateboarder successfully terminated a contract with a local association for the sport.

It claimed to be able to nominate the athlete to compete in international competitions.

“The chairman of the association told me that he had the authorisation to nominate my daughter to participate in the Asian Games and even the Olympic Games. Everything went through a phone call, but this is the main reason why I signed the contract without deep thinking,” the athlete’s father surnamed Su said.

Su signed the five-year contract back in 2021. However, no regular training was provided for his daughter, and he was asked to pay more than HK$100,000 for training and enter competitions that anyone could sign up for themselves. He said he never received any receipts regarding his payments.

When Su expressed his wish to terminate the contract this February, the sports body raised harsh conditions on his daughter.

“They demanded us to either pay HK$300,000 as a termination fee, or my daughter [would] not [be] involved in any skateboarding activity in a year,” he said.

A termination agreement was made in July after lawyers got involved in the dispute.

Fok said parents can refer to membership information under sports associations to verify the authenticity of various sports bodies.

“If in doubt, [parents] can contact SF&OC (Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China) or responsible national sports associations, to inquire more about the association or entity that you are involved with, to make sure that they are promoting the sports in a positive way, and not making any alternative claims that may not meet their expectation,” he said.

“We welcome different sports entities, stakeholders to contribute to sports in Hong Kong. Everyone has a right to push sports. But if such organisations are making claims, do double check and stay alert,” he added.