John Morling is explaining how he has ended up as the technical director of the Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA).
“It’s exciting in terms of what they want to do and how they want to do it,” he says. “I was at Peterborough for 12 years, Ireland for seven years, then 10 years at Brighton. I wanted to do something different and I wanted to go to Asia. I’ve been around European Championships and it would be good to do the Asia version.”
Morling has moved to the region on a two-year contract and is responsible for developing all age groups across the men’s and women’s games, apart from the men’s first team, which is managed by Norwegian Jorn Andersen. It is a significant change in direction as he approaches his 50th birthday in June.
His first few weeks have involved getting to know people — HKFA staff and coaches and club representatives — and watching games of all age groups. He intends to study Cantonese to communicate more easily in the region that was governed by the United Kingdom until 1997, when control was handed to China.
Morling will eventually be joined by his wife and their adult children, a son and daughter. Although it is a substantial career move, he draws parallels to the situation in Hong Kong with the circumstances in Ireland when he…
