# HKFC Soccer Sevens

The HKFC Soccer Sevens or Hong Kong Soccer Sevens, known as the HKFC Standard Chartered Soccer Sevens for sponsorship purposes, is an annual invitational seven-a-side football tournament which is organised and hosted by Hong Kong Football Club. Held since 1999, many young professional players have made a name for themselves in the tournament.
The competition ran from 1999 to 2019, with a break due to the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003. In 2020, the organisers confirmed that the competition would not be happening that year due to the ongoing issues in Hong Kong - promising to be back in 2021, but this did not happen with the tournament's website going offline. In 2023, the organisers confirmed that the competition would return after a four-year hiatus.
In 2024, the organisers announced that a women's edition of the tournament would take place alongside the men's.

## Format

* The event features two competitions, a Main Tournament and Masters Tournament. The 16-team Main Tournament is open age group (players must be at least 16) and features mostly youth and academy teams from clubs in Europe playing against more senior players from leagues around Asia.
* The 10-team Masters Tournament is for players aged 35 and over and features former players from Europe's top leagues. Players such as Jürgen Klinsmann, John Barnes, Andy Cole, Matt Le Tissier, Des Walker, Didier Six, Mustapha Hadji, Peter Beardsley, Craig Armstrong, David Johnson, Des Lyttle, Jason Lee, and Michael Thomas have competed in this category.
* Each game has two seven-minute halves with a one-minute half-time break, while the finals are 10 minutes each half with a three-minute break at half-time.
* There are two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage. In the Main group stage, teams compete within four groups of four teams each. Each group plays a round-robin tournament, in which each team is scheduled for three matches against other teams in the same group. The top two teams from each group advance to the Cup knockout stage while the bottom two advance to the Plate knockout stage. In the Masters Tournament, the 12 teams are split into three groups of four teams.
* The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with penalty shootouts and sudden death used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the quarter-finals in which the third-placed team plays against the fourth-placed team in Plate and the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group in Cup. This is followed by the semi-finals and the final.
* The Main Tournament has an additional Shield competition which is contested by the four losing teams of the Cup quarter-finals. The Shield is also a single-elimination tournament of similar format. The Cup is regarded as the highest honour, followed by the Shield and Plate.

## Past winners
### Men

Source
| Season | Title Sponsor | Main Cup | Main Shield | Main Plate | Masters Cup | Player of the Tournament |
| 1999 | None | Blackburn Rovers | | | Carling All Stars | Jon-Paul McGovern |
| 2000 | Philips Lighting | Instant Dict | | | Lorenz All Stars | Leon Knight |
| 2001 | Philips Lighting | Arsenal | | | Instant Dict Veterans | Liam Chilvers |
| 2002 | Philips Lighting | Aston Villa | | | Philips All Stars | Jonathan Bewers |
| 2003 | Not Held due to SARS outbreak | Not Held due to SARS outbreak | Not Held due to SARS outbreak | Not Held due to SARS outbreak | Not Held due to SARS outbreak | Not Held due to SARS outbreak |
| 2004 | Philips Lighting | Aston Villa | | | Philips All Stars | Stephen Cooke |
| 2005 | Philips Lighting | Urawa Red Diamonds | | Kitchee | Lorenz All Stars | Sergio Escudero |
| 2006 | Philips Lighting | Urawa Red Diamonds | | | Lorenz All Stars | Gabriel Agbonlahor |
| 2007 | Philips Lighting | Aston Villa | | | Lorenz All Stars | Zoltán Stieber |
| 2008 | Philips Lighting | Aston Villa | Urawa Red Diamonds | PSV Eindhoven | Rangers Legends | Barry Bannan |
| 2009 | IP Global | Celtic | Daejeon Citizen | Birmingham City | Golden Rainbow | Paul McGowan |
| 2010 | IP Global | Aston Villa | Ajax | Eastleigh | Kokusai F.C. Tokyo | Andrew Shinnie |
| 2011 | Citibank | Kitchee | Daejeon Citizen | HKFC Captain's Select | Top Class F.C. | Ubay Luzardo |
| 2012 | Citibank | Newcastle United | Leicester City | West Ham United | Aegon AFC All Stars | Daniel Johnson |
| 2013 | Citibank | Leicester City | Aston Villa | Hong Kong Rangers | Rangers All Stars | Harry Panayiotou |
| 2014 | Citibank | Manchester City | Aston Villa | Leicester City | Aegon Ajax All Stars | Brandon Barker |
| 2015 | Citibank | Atlético Madrid | Hong Kong Rangers | Hong Kong FC | USRC-BTS | Samuel Sáiz |
| 2016 | Citi | Aston Villa | Leicester City | Stoke City | Citi All Stars | Khalid Abdo |
| 2017 | Citi | Leicester City | West Ham United | Bayer Leverkusen | Citi All Stars | Josh Eppiah |
| 2018 | Citi | Newcastle United | Aston Villa | Newcastle Jets | Discovery Bay | Víctor Fernández |
| 2019 | Citi | Newcastle United | Wolverhampton Wanderers | Aston Villa | Wallsend Boys Club | Elias Sørensen |
| 2020 | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests |
| 2021 | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests |
| 2022 | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests | Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Hong Kong protests |
| 2023 | Citi | Aston Villa | Newcastle United | Rangers | Wallsend Boys Club | Omari Kellyman |
| 2024 | Standard Chartered | Brighton & Hove Albion | Leicester City | Yokohama F. Marinos | PFA All Stars | Luca Barrington |

### Women

| Year | Title Sponsor | Cup Winner | Plate Winner | Player of the Tournament |
| 2024 | Standard Chartered | Chelsea FC Soccer School | Hong Kong Football Club | Anke Leung |

### Records

Source:
| Team | Cup Wins | Shield Wins | Plate Wins |
| Aston Villa | 7 (2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2016, 2023) | 3 (2013, 2014, 2018) | 1 (2019) |
| Newcastle United | 3 (2012, 2018, 2019) | 1 (2023) | 0 |
| Leicester City | 2 (2013, 2017) | 3 (2012, 2016, 2024) | 1 (2014) |
| Urawa Red Diamonds | 2 (2005, 2006) | 1 (2008) | 0 |
| Kitchee | 1 (2011) | 0 | 1 (2005) |
| Arsenal | 1 (2001) | 0 | 0 |
| Atlético Madrid | 1 (2015) | 0 | 0 |
| Blackburn Rovers | 1 (1999) | 0 | 0 |
| Brighton & Hove Albion | 1 (2024) | 0 | 0 |
| Celtic | 1 (2009) | 0 | 0 |
| Instant Dict | 1 (2000) | 0 | 0 |
| Manchester City | 1 (2014) | 0 | 0 |
| Daejeon Citizen | 0 | 2 (2009, 2011) | 0 |
| Hong Kong Rangers | 0 | 1 (2015) | 1 (2013) |
| West Ham United | 0 | 1 (2017) | 1 (2012) |
| Ajax | 0 | 1 (2010) | 0 |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers | 0 | 1 (2019) | 0 |
| Bayer Leverkusen | 0 | 0 | 1 (2017) |
| Birmingham City | 0 | 0 | 1 (2009) |
| Eastleigh | 0 | 0 | 1 (2010) |
| Hong Kong FC | 0 | 0 | 1 (2015) |
| HKFC Captain's Select | 0 | 0 | 1 (2011) |
| Newcastle Jets | 0 | 0 | 1 (2018) |
| PSV Eindhoven | 0 | 0 | 1 (2008) |
| Rangers | 0 | 0 | 1 (2023) |
| Stoke City | 0 | 0 | 1 (2016) |
| Yokohama F. Marinos | 0 | 0 | 1 (2024) |