Just this afternoon, the group stage draw results for the 2022 AFC Champions League season are officially released! Shanghai Haigang, who qualified for the main tournament as the runner-up of the league this season, drew a draw in the group stage and was divided into Group J with Chiang Rai United (Thailand), Hong Kong Jiezhi (Hong Kong, China) and play-off teams.
Among the rest of the Chinese Super League teams, the league + FA Cup double champion Shandong Taishan fell into Group F, with the same group opponents as Urawa Red Diamonds, Lion City Mariners, Daegu FC and Buriram United as the play-off winners; last season's United runner-up Guangzhou team fell into the death group, encountering Kawasaki Forwards, Johor DT, Ulsan Hyundai and Thailand's Thai Port play-off winners; and last season's league champion Changchun Yatai had to participate in the play-offs to get tickets to the AFC Champions League.
However, given last season's AFC Champions League journey, today's AFC Champions League may not be as attractive as it used to be in the context of repeated epidemics. According to relevant reports today, if the Chinese Super League AFC Champions League schedule does not conflict, the teams will send the main force to participate, otherwise they will still send the second team to play, but even if the schedule does not conflict and want to send all the main forces to fight, I am afraid it is unlikely.
On the one hand, the Chinese Super League team that sent the second team and the youth army to the team created a lot of "tragedies" in the AFC Champions League group stage last season, as far as Beijing Guoan was concerned, it was 0-7, 0-5 against Kawasaki Striker and Daegu FC, although the exercise was full of meaning, but as a team representing Chinese football in the Asian arena, such a big score defeat was somewhat faceless...
On the other hand, and most importantly, last season's AFC Champions League Beijing Guoan's long-term stay overseas due to the epidemic has made all teams feel uneasy. After the last round of the AFC Champions League on July 10 last year, some of the 34 members of the National Security Echelon were detected to be infected with the new crown virus, and then the whole team was isolated in four batches, taking a total of 157 days to return to the motherland. Therefore, even if the schedules do not conflict, the participating Chinese Super League teams are unlikely to take such a big risk to participate in the AFC Champions League overseas.
But what if the AFC Champions League group stage is held in China? In the information released by the AFC before, it was said that the current venue of each stage has not yet been determined, and the AFC will soon use the bidding method to decide the venue, so if the Chinese Football Association has the idea of letting the Chinese Super League team compete in the AFC Champions League on the mainland, it will be a good opportunity, but this means that we have to bear the difficulty of epidemic prevention brought by the entry of more overseas teams.
According to existing reports, the China Football Federation Preparatory Group comprehensive FIFA, the AFC previously finalized calendar and the Qatar World Cup schedule, the 2022 season of the Chinese Super League will not start until late April at the earliest, and the AFC Champions League East Asia group stage will be held from April 15 to May 1, and will it affect the team's league journey due to isolation...
Although the current AFC Champions League has become a "burden" for the team in the eyes of the outside world, it must be understood that before the AFC Champions League quota becomes "2+2" in the 2023 season, this season's AFC Champions League will be the last time that the Chinese Super League will hold a "3+1" place in the near future to participate in this event. Today is different from the past, the 2015-2018 Chinese Super League is also "2+2", but at that time, the Chinese football clubs in the "Golden Dollar Period" had all advanced in 3 years of those 4 play-offs, but when the current frenzy recedes, in the face of the "AFC Champions League" issue, how will various Chinese Super League teams answer?