Original title: Chinese men’s football team looks forward to rebirth in the trough
Beijing Evening News reporter Li Li
On December 30, 2022, before the final round of the Chinese Super League kicked off, the Chinese Football Association announced the ownership of the league champion. Earlier, the Chinese Football Association issued a heavy fine for the match-fixing incident in the Guangdong Provincial Games. At the beginning of last year, the Chinese men’s football team lost to the Vietnam team in the round of 12, which hurt the nerves of the fans. In the post-Golden Yuan football era, Chinese football is undoubtedly experiencing labor pains. But at the end of the year, the national youth team and the national junior team finally both entered the finals of the Asian Youth Championship and the Asian Junior Championship, which brought a little warmth to the Chinese men’s football team in the cold winter.
punish the black sheep
On August 7, 2022, in the men’s group A final of the football event of the 16th Guangdong Provincial Games, the Guangzhou football team defeated the Qingyuan football team 5-3 to win the championship. In that game, the Guangzhou Football Team scored 4 goals in a row in the second half, and there were many incredible phenomena including goalkeeper assists. After investigation, Guangzhou Football Association Chairman Xie Zhiguang, Evergrande Football School Principal Wang Yajun and Vice Principal Zhang Xiuyu, Director of Player Management Cai Guanghui, Qingyuan City Football Team Head Coach Li Zifei, Qingyuan City Football Team Assistant Coach Chen Weihua manipulated the game to ensure The violation of discipline for the Guangzhou football team to win the championship. The Chinese Football Association decided to suspend the membership of the Guangzhou Football Association and impose a lifelong ban on the six people concerned from engaging in any football-related activities under the management of the Chinese Football Association.
Looking back at the whole incident, the match-fixing case is not an accidental phenomenon. In August 2022, the Chinese Football Association received a number of reports about some clubs participating in gambling. On November 26, the website of the Hubei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection issued an announcement stating that Li Tie, the former head coach of the Chinese men’s football team, was suspected of serious violations of the law and was being investigated by the Disciplinary Inspection and Supervision Team of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervision Commission of the State Sports General Administration and the Hubei Provincial Supervision Commission. Following the investigation of Li Tie, many relevant personnel were lost in the follow-up, including Zheng Bin, Xin Feng, and former Tianjin Quanjian goalkeeper Zhang Lu. It is reported that when Li Tie coached China Fortune Land Development and Wuhan Zall, he was involved in many match-fixing matches. At present, the relevant cases are still under investigation, but the attitude of the General Administration of Sports and the Chinese Football Association is very clear, that is, they will investigate to the end.
League struggles
This season’s Super League is the first season after the expansion, and it didn’t officially start until June. However, due to the influence of multiple factors, the league progressed stumblingly, and finally ended hastily. The first stage is still a tournament system, with 18 teams divided into three groups to compete in three divisions. At the end of the first stage, the three towns of Wuhan became the big dark horses, leading the standings. However, the former 8-time champion Guangzhou team was in a slump, and it was hard to find a victory. In the second stage, the league resumed home and away games, but due to objective factors, the league has been intermittent, and in the last few rounds, many teams abstained. In the last round of the game, with Guoan and Jinmen Tigers all abstained, the Wuhan Three Towns team finally won without a fight and won the league championship ahead of schedule with the advantage of goal difference.
At the same time, many clubs in the Chinese Super League were exposed to wage arrears, and the clubs did not make up the arrears at the time stipulated by the Football Association, which eventually led to points being deducted, including Shanghai Shenhua, Wuhan Changjiang, and Hebei teams. And Wuhan Changjiang’s point deduction directly led to the team’s relegation. The former giants Guangzhou team and Hebei team were finally both relegated due to financial problems.
National football continued to decline
The National Football Team also handed in a bad answer in 2022. In the top 12 of the World Cup in Asia, they played sluggishly and failed to qualify for the promotion. In 10 group matches, the national football team only won 1 victory, and finally ranked second to last in Group B.
Looking back at the history of the top 12 of the national football team, they first lost to the Australian team and the Japanese team, starting with a two-game losing streak, then defeated the Vietnam team, drew with the Oman team and the Australian team, and gained a glimmer of hope. But as soon as the second round started, they suffered a major blow. On the night of the first day of the Lunar New Year, they lost to Vietnam 1-3. Vietnam captain Du Xiong Yong said after the game: “When we play at home, we always try to score points. Fortunately, we defeated the Chinese team on the first day of the Lunar New Year.” After leading the team to lose this game, The performance of the acting coach Li Xiaopeng and the national football team continued to decline, and they were eventually eliminated early.
Just when the national football team was struggling, Wu Lei, the only overseas player in China who played in the five major leagues, also officially returned this season, bringing the number of players playing in the top European leagues to zero.
Good News from National Youth and National Youth
Of course, the Chinese men’s football team in 2022 is not all bad news.
In September, the National Youth Team advanced to the final stage of the Asian Youth Championship with the second place in the group; in October, the National Youth Team also advanced to the final stage of the Asian Youth Championship with the second place in the group. Although they both only finished second in the group, being able to return to the Asian high-level competitive stage is already a huge gain for the two teams.
In 2005, when young players such as Zhao Xuri, Gao Lin, and Mao Jianqing showed their football talents in the World Youth Championship and regretted losing to the mighty German team, no one would have thought that after that year, Except for the automatic promotion to the finals of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Men’s Football Competition due to home games, until now, the Chinese Men’s Football Team U has never entered the “threshold” of world-class competitions. To make matters worse, under the negative influence of Jinyuan football, the record of youth teams in Asian football competitions is getting worse and worse. The national youth team has missed the main match of the Asian Youth Championship since 2015, and the national youth team failed to pass the qualifiers in 2019. For the first time in the past 30 years, it missed the final stage of the U19 Asian Youth Championship. And the long-term absence from the top youth competitions in Asia has also made the foundation of Chinese football weaker and weaker, falling into a vicious circle.
Finally, relying on my own efforts to return to the highest level of football in Asia, for Chinese football, it is the hope in the trough. What is worthy of recognition is that the China Youth Football League will officially restart in 2022, and the U21 League will also be successfully completed. Although the progress of the entire event is still relatively hasty, this step also means hope for Chinese football that needs to be tempered on the ground.