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 managed the under-15s, under-16s and under-17s during his first spell with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) as head of player development before becoming Brighton’s academy manager in 2012.
“I had been here (Hong Kong) before with Brighton for tournaments,” says Morling. “Some of the issues and obstacles are similar to when I worked in Ireland. It is a similar population (the population of Hong Kong is approximately seven million, the Republic of Ireland five million), a small island. Access to players is good.
“The National League has similar issues to the Irish League in terms of facilities, the amount they can pay players, trying to give it a higher profile and getting more people to games. They are not at the same level in terms of the national team, but they follow the national team with the same sort of commitment.
“The aim, long term, is for the boys to qualify for the World Cup in 2034 and the girls to qualify for the Asia Cup in 2030. My aim is to improve individuals and departments, so that things look different in 12 months, then do it again in another 12 months. That is where I hope to be, trying to create resources for bigger-scale programmes.”
Morling is the technical director of the Hong Kong Football Association
Morling applied for and landed his new job after a comprehensive interview process. Announcing the appointment, the HKFA referred to his “wealth of experience in football management and coaching” which makes him a good fit to “elevate the standard of football”.
Morling, a schoolboy player at Norwich, made an early move into coaching as a teenager at Peterborough. He progressed from under-16s assistant to planning the coaching programmes for the eight to 16-year-old age groups and managing the under-18s.
That led him to Ireland and then Brighton. He was sacked in February 2022 after a successful decade as academy manager over a breach of regulations involving a young player that were in place at that time to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Morling refuses to discuss the incident that prompted his departure. He prefers to concentrate on what was achieved across a period in which Brighton progressed from a former League One club that had just moved into the newly-built Amex Stadium from Withdean Stadium — a converted athletics track that became a temporary home for 12 years — into an established Premier League club with a reputation for a highly regarded academy system.
GO DEEPER
Hammer holes and Ravanelli on long-jump track: Brighton’s success ‘in rubbish circumstances’ at Withdean
“We were a centre of excellence, training in lots of different venues when I first came in,” Morling says. “The training ground was coming, but we had 11 or 12 full-time staff and 20 to 25 part-time staff. That grew to 47 (full-time). When I left we had about 100 part-time staff and that is probably even higher now.
“Growing the academy was successful, being able to put together a good team of people across all departments and being able to strengthen the programme. What we could offer the kids in terms of education, psychology, strength and conditioning wasn’t in place at that time. It’s gone from a centre of excellence to a good category one club (the highest status for an academy).
“There is a lot of pride in that. And a lot of the people and players who came when I was there are still there. I want it to go on again, hopefully go to another level.”
Morling’s legacy at Brighton is illustrated by the rise of Jack Hinshelwood. The versatile 18-year-old was making a big impact in the first team this season under Roberto De Zerbi until a stress fracture of the foot cut short his campaign in February.
GO DEEPER
Brighton’s Jack Hinshelwood – the sixth member of his family to play professional football
Morling stresses that Hinshelwood’s rise through the ranks is the result of a huge team effort, rather than the work of any individual. “Jack is the first to come all the way through from the age of seven pre-academy,” he says. “That is brilliant to see.
Jack Hinshelwood is a success story for the Brighton academy (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
“People forget the amount of people involved in a player’s journey through the age groups — medical staff, teachers, coaches, dinner servers, digs (accommodation) providers. And when they get to debut, that is thousands of training session hours and hundreds of games.
“That is just the start, because you have then got to stay in the team, or someone else’s team if you go out on loan. That is not easy to do and that is why very few make it, so it’s great when you see players doing well.”
Brighton’s strong record for signing and developing players from Ireland, such as 19-year-old first-team forward Evan Ferguson, is rooted in Morling’s work.
GO DEEPER
Evan Ferguson is epitome of Brighton’s Irish scouting – and won’t be the last
Will Clarke, League of Ireland academy development manager for the FAI, says: “John had a good understanding of the quality of the players here and the fact they are probably undervalued and underappreciated.
“When John got the job at Brighton, he was eager to make his mark in terms of the Irish market, so it would be largely down to John. He knows the landscape here.”
After leaving Brighton, Morling set up a consultancy. He returned briefly to the FAI to work with the national teams and to help Marc Canham settle in as director of football.
Moises Caicedo was sold to Chelsea last summer (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images for Premier League)
Morling also specialised in identifying players in South America between the ages of 18 and 22 for Premier League and Championship clubs. The continent has been a rich source of recruitment for Brighton in recent years for players past and present. Alex Mac Allister (Liverpool), Moises Caicedo (Chelsea), Julio Enciso, Facundo Buonanotte and Valentin Barco were all signed directly from South American football.
GO DEEPER
From scouting with his dad to playing with Messi: the Alexis Mac Allister story
“There is definitely a market and talented players at a reasonable budget,” Morling says. “They are a little bit different in that they might have quite a few agents and lots of people try to get involved in deals. That was part of my consultancy work, to try to clean that up and make sure clubs were speaking to the right agent.
“Bringing in someone from South America who doesn’t speak English is a little bit higher risk than someone who already plays in the league and speaks English. However, there could be greater rewards.”
As there could be for Morling in his new venture in Hong Kong.
(Top image: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
