Ruslan Mingazov became the first Turkmen legionnaire in the Hong Kong Football Championship, by signing a contract with “Kitchee”. Reports the official website of the AFC.
Mingazov did not play for the top clubs in Asia earlier, the source notes. He almost spent his entire career in European clubs. 34 years old Mingazev, who has 26 matches (4 goals) for the national team of Turkmenistan, played in Europe for the Czech “Slavia”, “Jablonec”, “Mlada Boleslav”, “Pribram”, the Latvian “Skonto”, Kazakh clubs “Irtysh”, “Miners” and “Caspian”.
“Kitchee” is the current winner of the Hong Kong Premier League. The team is a regular participant in the AFC Champions League.
The Hong Kong Premier Football League is the top professional football league in Hong Kong. The championship has been played since 1908, at the moment 8 teams participate in the competition. The division is not traditionally included in the Chinese football league system, due to the fact that Hong Kong was under British control until 1997 and is a separate member of FIFA. Till 2014 it was called the Hong Kong First Division.
The Hong Kong Championship is held according to the autumn-spring system in two rounds. For each season, the Hong Kong Football Association sets limits on the number of foreigners (including citizens of the PRC), in the 2021/22 season, teams were allowed to include no more than 6 such players in the application, their number should not exceed 5 on the field.
The Hong Kong champions compete in the AFC Champions League next season. Teams getting the 2nd and 3rd places, qualify for the AFC Cup.
