South China have been left facing a fixture pile-up after the war in the Middle East forced officials to move the Basketball Champions League Asia to the first two weeks of October.

With domestic matches in Hong Kong also traditionally starting the same month, the BCLA East winners could be in for a busy end of the year.

The local side also face the prospect of losing several key players who helped them win the East title, with the likes of Dominic Gilbert, Glen Yang, Leung Shiu-wah and Tsai Choi-kwan all on loan from other teams.

Hong Kong Eastern could also be affected given they are expected to compete in the East Asia Super League, which also tends to tip off in October.

And an official with the Basketball Association of Hong Kong has admitted that with few venues in the city “it would be a nightmare for us to accommodate [the fixtures] with the overseas ones”.

World governing body Fiba had to change the schedule because the qualifying tournament in the West region, which was scheduled to finish in April, has been delayed until the end of September.