Football in Hong Kong for the AFC Cup. There have also been a number of other cup competitions which are no longer run: The [[Hong Kong national football team]] represents Hong Kong in men's international football events. The team competed their first international match in 1947 against [[South Korea]] during the colonial period. Even after 1997 the [[Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong|transfer of sovereignty to China]], it continues to represent Hong Kong separately from the [[People's Republic of China]] as its own national team in international competitions due to the "[[One country, two systems]]" principle. The team has never qualified for the [[FIFA
British Hong Kong Empire. In 1861, Governor Sir Hercules Robinson introduced the Hong Kong Cadetship, which recruited young graduates from Britain to learn Cantonese and written Chinese for two years, before deploying them on a fast track to the Civil Service. Cadet officers gradually formed the backbone of the civil administration. After the Second World War, ethnic Chinese were allowed into the service, followed by women. Cadets were renamed Administrative Officers in the 1950s, and they remained the elite of the Civil Service during British rule. The stability, security, and predictability of British law and government enabled Hong Kong to flourish as a