“If we get there, only time will tell, but we have to be much closer than we are now,” Morling told the Post.
In line with that goal, the 50-year-old said the growth of a coordinated player development programme over the next five years would result in “a conveyor belt of players, year after year.”.
The academy manager of Brighton & Hove Albion for the decade up to 2022, the Englishman emerged from an exhaustive recruitment process as the individual charged with overseeing all of Hong Kong’s men’s and women’s international teams, barring the men’s senior team, as well as grass-roots football, futsal, women’s football, and coach education in the city.
He will mentor coaches and staff, and has already identified elements of the game capable of attracting commercial investment.
Appointed in March, Morling is not yet ready to draw any conclusions about Hong Kong football, or air ideas for change.
“I do not want to be held to anything, because I might see one or two things I want to change now, but that could have increased to five or six in one month,” Morling said.
He does, however, acknowledge the need to close the yawning gap between under-18 and senior football is pressing.
“Most teams in the Hong Kong Premier League have a high average age, so players get to 18 [the end of age-group football] and have far fewer minutes than in previous years,” Morling said.
“Everyone agrees it is an issue high on the priority list, how we solve it is the next question.”
Morling said “three or four” alternatives for addressing the problem have been floated, “but we could have 10 in another month”.
Morling was player development manager for the Football Association of Ireland for around four years, before leaving for Brighton in 2012, a move that stemmed from a desire to return closer to home.
“My two kids were young, I was spending more than 150 nights away every year, and we had two bereavements, my dad, and my wife’s stepdad, so it was a personal decision,” he said.
The change of role steadily took Morling away from the coaching he pursued after one season of commuting 380kms to play for Scarborough, while working in a greengrocers and studying. Added to his release from Norwich, aged 16, one year earlier, he accepted a professional playing career was unlikely.
Morling was the second youngest person to obtain the old Football Association “Full” coaching badge, behind former England manager Graham Taylor, and as under-9s coach at Peterborough United, at the age of 19, already “wanted to be the manager”.
He would rise to first-team coach and reserve-team manager, and credits the autonomy afforded him by manager Barry Fry for speeding his development.
With Ireland, where he coached a young Jack Grealish, Morling was instrumental in establishing 12 football centres across the country to “broaden the player network, and improve talent identification”.
Improving and expanding the academy at Brighton, as the club climbed from League One to the Premier League, involved establishing elite departments for psychology, nutrition, strength & conditioning, medicine, sports science, and education.
While it was “too early to tell” if those resources existed at a high standard in Hong Kong, Morling said all were vital for player development.
“We have to do as much as possible to give the young players every chance to be the best they can be,” he said, adding he was already addressing clubs’ concerns over limited training facilities.
Morling’s motivation for coming to Hong Kong was partly influenced by a desire to work abroad when his children were old enough to fend for themselves.
His decision still raised eyebrows, with some questioning why a man with an enviable CV would want join an association struggling in the lower reaches of international football.
“If the board didn’t have a passion for player development, I would not be here,” Morling said.
“We will recruit more staff over the next few months, and the fact we are starting to expand is a positive thing. They want to see the 2034 project, and the target for the women to qualify for the 2029 AFC Asian Cup finals [also listed in Vision 2025], come to fruition. My first impressions of the board are very positive, there is a real enthusiasm to do well.
“If all staff and departments are in a better place in 12 months, that would be a good start.”
