Southern District Recreation & Sports Assn Ltd (), commonly known as Southern and currently known for sponsorship reasons as Kwoon Chung Southern, is a professional football club based in Southern District, Hong Kong. They currently compete in the Hong Kong Premier League.
History Southern District entered the newly formed Hong Kong Third District Division during the 2002–03 season. However, the team did not reach the Hong Kong Third Division League final round and thus did not get promotion in the first few years of their history.
In the 2006–07 season, they reached the final round for the first time since the club was formed. They were the runners up of the Third District Division and qualified for the final round, however, they could not get promotion as they only managed to gain two points.
In the 2007–08 season, they retained last season's good performance, reached the final round again as they were again the 1st runner-up of Third District Division League, 9 points behind Shatin. Unfortunately, they could not gain the promotion again as they were 4 points behind the promotion places.
In the 2008–09 season, they could not qualify for the final round as they only placed at 4th of Third District Division.
They were finally promoted to the Hong Kong Second Division for the first time in the 2009–10 season. They were the 1st runner-up of the Third District Division League and competed with the other 3 teams in the final round for promotion. Although they only placed at 3rd in the final round, Eastern decided not to accept promotion and the right to be promoted was passed to Southern who did accept.
They successfully avoided relegation and stayed in the Second Division during their first season. They were the 4th out of 12 teams, 10 points behind the champions Sham Shui Po. On the other hand, they won their first trophy since their formation on 9 January 2011. They defeated Double Flower in the final of Hong Kong Junior Shield at Hong Kong Stadium.
They were promoted to the Hong Kong First Division for the first time in the 2011–12 season, as they were the 1st runner-up of the Hong Kong Second Division, three points behind champions Rangers.
They were branded as Royal Southern in the 2013–14 season, and finished 4th out of 12 teams. However, the club chose to self-relegate after the end of the season.
They returned to the top flight in the 2015–16 season. Starting from this season, the club was rebranded as Kwoon Chung Southern due to sponsorship reasons.
In 2016–17, Southern finished third in the table, their highest position in club history.
Southern matched their table position from 2016 to 2017 with another third-place finish in 2018–19. The club also reached the finals of Hong Kong FA Cup for the first time, losing 2–0 to Kitchee.
The club claimed their first silverware in the form of the 2022–23 Sapling Cup with a 2–0 win over Lee Man aided by a brace by Stefan Pereira.
Name history 2002–2013: Southern (南區) 2013–2014: Royal Southern (皇室南區) 2014–2015: Southern (南區) 2015–: Kwoon Chung Southern (冠忠南區)
Stadium
Since 2007, Southern have played their home games at Aberdeen Sports Ground. They began playing their home games there during their days in the Hong Kong Third District Division.
After Southern was promoted to the Hong Kong First Division, the club have continued to use Aberdeen Sports Ground as their home stadium.
In September 2018, the canopy of the main grandstand at Aberdeen Sports Ground was damaged due to Typhoon Mangkhut. Although a temporary canopy was erected over the opposite grandstand in order to allow Southern to continue to use the stadium for the remainder of the 2018–19 season, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department determined that installation of a new canopy on the main grandstand was to begin in June 2019. As the renovations were scheduled to last until the end of March 2020, Southern applied to use Mong Kok Stadium as their home stadium for the 2019–20 season.
Club officials
Executive staff {|class="wikitable" |- !Position !Staff |- |Club president|| Chan Man Chun |- |Club chairman|| Wong Cheuk Tim
Coaching staff {|class="wikitable" |- !Position !Staff |- |Head coach|| Chan Chi Hong |- |Technical director|| Cheng Siu Chung |- |rowspan=2|Assistant coaches|| Ju Yingzhi |- | Kwok Chun Lam |- |Goalkeeping coach|| Fan Chun Yip |- |Team manager|| Pui Ho Wang
Current squad
First team
Season-to-season record Season Tier Division Teams Position Home stadium Attendance/GFA CupSenior ShieldLeague CupSapling Cup2002–033Third District Division13Did not enterDid not enterNot held2003–043Third District Division2004–053Third District Division2005–063Third District Division1642006–073Third District Division1722007–083Third District Division1622008–093Third District Division1542009–103Third District Division142Not held2010–112Second Division126Did not enter2011–122Second Division1222012–131First Division104Aberdeen Sports Ground554First RoundSemi-finalsNot held2013–141First Division124Aberdeen Sports GroundMong Kok Stadium434Semi-finalsSemi-finals2014–152First Division153First RoundDid not enterDid not enter2015–161Premier League94Aberdeen Sports Ground489Semi-finalsRunners-upGroup StageGroup Stage2016–171Premier League113532Semi-finalsSemi-finalsNot heldSemi-finals2017–181Premier League105493Semi-finalsSemi-finalsGroup Stage2018–191Premier League103827Runners-upQuarter-finalsGroup Stage2019–201Premier League105Mong Kok Stadium861Quarter-finalsQuarter-finalsRunners-up2020–211Premier League85Aberdeen Sports Ground627Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemicGroup Stage2021–221Premier League8Cancelled424Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemicCancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic2022–231Premier League105502Semi-finalsQuarter-finalsChampions2023–241Premier League115332Quarter-finalsQuarter-finalsSemi-finals2024–251Premier League95424Quarter-finalsQuarter-finalsChampions2025–261Premier League107398First RoundFirst RoundFirst RoundDefunct2026–271Premier League11
Note:
Honours Cup competitions Hong Kong Sapling Cup Champions (2): 2022–23, 2024–25 Hong Kong Junior Shield Champions (1): 2010–11
Past managers Cheng Siu Chung (2006–2008) Fung Hoi Man (2009–2015) Cheng Siu Chung (2015–2020) Pui Ho Wang, Cristiano Cordeiro (2020) Zesh Rehman (2020–2022) Cheng Siu Chung (2022–2023) Yeung Ching Kwong (2023–2025) Pui Ho Wang (2025–2026) Chan Chi Hong (2026–present)
eSports Southern District is the first Hong Kong football club of creating an eSports department. By partnering with Nova Esports, they signed Ronnie Yau as a FIFA player and Kevin Lau as a Pro Evolution Soccer player.
References
External links Southern Official Website