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On February 2, Beijing time, the Syrian Football Association released a blockbuster news on the official website of the Football Association - the dissolution of the national team administrative organ and the dismissal of all technical personnel. The syrian football federation gave an explanation for this decision, that "the national team did not show the seriousness it deserved in its work, and the technicians failed to provide the team with the help it needed".
In the 8th round of the World Preliminary Round of 12 in the Asian Round of 12 on February 1, Syria lost 0-2 to South Korea, missing the World Cup two rounds earlier. Now, after disbanding the national team administration, dismissing employer coach Tita, and all the technicians, the Syrian Football Federation will then announce new administrative and technical cadres to complete the final two rounds of qualifiers against Lebanon and Iraq. Perhaps the Syrians would not have thought that this news would soon appear on the hot search of Chinese social media, and Chinese netizens on the Internet @ the Chinese Football Association: "Lose South Korea will be disbanded, lose Vietnam has not yet been disbanded!" "Syria: I'll take a sample first, I'll learn it quickly!" "This is an example of Chinese football!" "Look, is this called pragmatic, retreating to live tomorrow?" ”...... Undoubtedly, with the Chinese men's football team missing the World Cup finals two rounds in advance, Chinese fans have been extremely disappointed in the national football team, and in the eyes of many people, the "iron fist action" of the Syrian Football Association also applies to the Chinese men's football team.
On February 1, 2022, the first day of the Year of the Lunar New Year, in the 8th round of the 2022 Qatar World Cup Asian Qualifier Round of 12, the national football team lost 1-3 to Vietnam away, and completely missed the Qatar World Cup two rounds earlier. After the game, the national football coach Li Xiaopeng apologized to all Chinese fans on behalf of the team, and just half a month ago, he replaced Li Tie in the line of fire, and said in the first public interview with the media that it was his top priority not to add blockage to the majority of fans in the New Year.
And the time pulled back to September 5, 2017, the last round of the 2018 World Cup Asian Qualifiers in Russia, the Chinese men's football team reversed the Qatar team 2-1 away, although the national football team finally failed to get the third place in the group, and could only regret to bid farewell to the World Cup, but the team's shameful and courageous performance in the entire round of 12 was recognized by the vast majority of Chinese fans. After the game, the then national football coach Lippi also said with regret, "If it were not for the accidental loss of points in two games, we would have directly advanced to the World Cup as the second in the group."
If after the last national football team lost the World Cup, it can be exchanged for a tear in return for a tear, then now, after the national humiliation bid farewell to the World Preliminary Round, most of the Chinese fans are already crying without tears, for the national football team, and the Chinese Football Association has been mourned more than the heart is dead. In a sense, from now on, the national football team has entered the preparation time for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, but whether Chinese football can escape the fatalistic "dead cycle", no one has an answer in his heart. Because before answering this ultimate question, there are still many question marks in front of the practitioners and managers of Chinese football: Can Chinese football really follow the laws of football? Is there real emphasis on youth training? Can we solve the difficulties in football reform? Can you find a path suitable for the development of Chinese football? What is embarrassing is that in fact, when the national team raised the flag 4 years ago, many of these problems existed, but in the past four years, Chinese football has given a contradictory and self-denying answer, and it seems not surprising that the national football team is moving towards "self-destruction" in a mess.
It is undeniable that in the case of only 1 point in the last 12 rounds of 4 matches, Lippi took over the national football coaching whip from Gao Hongbo halfway, and the effect of "changing the coach is like changing the knife" was immediate, even if in the end he failed to save the World Cup dream of the national football team, it also brought new hope to the national football team in a pool of stagnant water. As a world-class coach, Lippi's authority, professionalism and popularity are impeccable in terms of Chinese football, and more importantly, he is fully in line with the long-term plan of the leadership of the Chinese Football Association at that time for the impact of the national football team on the next World Cup. Therefore, even if the "Silver Fox" led the team to encounter an unwinnable East Asian Cup, the bottom of the Chinese Cup rankings, the warm-up trip to West Asia frequently hit a wall, and even after the national football team stopped in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup at the beginning of 2019, he himself also proposed to resign, but at the end of April 2019, the Chinese Football Association still signed Lippi again, allowing him to have a complete coaching cycle to lead the team to the World Cup. Such a decision is understandable, after all, if a head coach of Lippi's level can't bring a national football team, who else can expect it? However, Lippi's contract extension was not logical, and everyone was happy, because at that time, it was rumored that the leaders of the relevant departments were dissatisfied with his team's achievements, especially the mental outlook displayed by the team.
In September 2019, the Russian World Cup Asian Qualifier Round of 40 was launched, and the national football team was in the same group as Syria, the Philippines, Maldives and Guam, but in the first half of the top 40, the national football team only achieved 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and there was almost no hope of qualifying as the head of the group, and the prospect of impacting the top 12 was not optimistic. After the national football team lost 1-2 to Syria on November 14, Lippi was dissatisfied with his feathers being "tarnished" and resigned indignantly at the press conference, and the vigorous "Lippi era" of the national football team came to an end.
Although Lippi has not brought about an improvement in the performance of the national team at the competitive level, the "Silver Fox" has had a profound impact on the reform of the Chinese football league and the construction of the national football team. The first is the "U23 New Deal" launched by the Chinese Football Association as early as the beginning of the 2017 season, although this is a very strange policy in the world football world, but in the face of the reality that China's football reserve force is getting weaker and weaker, the Chinese Football Association has to accelerate the youth training construction of clubs by administrative order, so as to provide guarantees for the selection and employment of the national team. Lippi's support for the FA in this regard is obvious, and the "lottery" scraped out under the policies of He Chao, Huang Zichang, Huang Zhengyu, Guo Quanbo and so on is indeed eye-catching.
However, with the passage of time, the various problems arising from the league have emerged in an endless stream, and what is more embarrassing is that the national youth team that fully enjoys the policy dividend has successively collapsed in the U23 Asian Cup and the Asian Games, when people realize that compared with the targeted youth training programs of our neighbors Qatar, Thailand and Vietnam, the Chinese Football Association's alternative policy can only be regarded as a kind of self-exoneration and self-consolation. After Lippi left office, no one criticized the club to exploit the loopholes in the U23 policy, which is now more and more formal.
Secondly, one of the conditions set for the Chinese Football Association when Lippi "entered the palace twice" was to introduce naturalized players. Although the naturalization policy is actually an inevitable product of the development of modern football, China's naturalization policy is not to synchronize with the international community, but urgently needs naturalized players to enhance the hope of the national football team to impact the Qatar World Cup. After the football association promulgated the naturalization policy, many giants of the Chinese Super League responded positively, although for Chinese football, the introduction and use of non-blood naturalized players is a new and extremely controversial topic, but if the national football team can successfully enter the Qatar World Cup, all doubts will naturally disappear. But it is frustrating that the non-blood naturalized players who are now heavily introduced are like fish bones stuck in the throat of the national football team, unable to swallow or spit out, and no one knows what their future holds.
Subsequently, Li Tie took over as Lippi and entered the national football team, with a very special background. In May 2019, the former chairman of Shanghai SIPG was appointed as the head of the preparatory team for the change of the Chinese Football Association, which seems to indicate that the Football Association will enter a new era. In August of the same year, Chen Shuyuan officially became the president of the Chinese Football Association, and in the following time, he reformed Chinese football with unprecedented intensity: further deepening, implementing the policy of investment caps such as salary restrictions, stopping non-blood naturalization, and the reform of the neutral name of Chinese football professional clubs, and his reform authority with almost no upper limit also seems to indicate that he has absolute trust and support from the higher levels.
In the face of Lippi's second resignation, the Football Association led by Chen Shuyuan quickly accepted it, and from the trend of Cheng Yaodong succeeding Gong Farong as the U18 national youth team and Hao Wei replacing Hiddink as the U22 national Olympic team, the national football team was put in charge by a local coach, which is also the inevitable result of this wave of "foreign retreat" movement. In the end, after Passing the Inspection of the East Asian Cup, Li Tie's team officially took office as the national football team in January 2020.
Although Li Tie is not necessarily the best local coach in China, this is a complete negation of the Chinese Football Association's previous route of the national football team that has been in charge for several years, and it is clear that the Football Association is also willing to give Li Tie time to prove himself and improve himself. In August last year, the Chinese Football Association renewed its contract with Li Tie's team until 2026, which is a work contract until the next World Cup. Undoubtedly, this shows that the Football Association has full trust in Li Tie's team, and at the same time, it is also considered for the long-term stable development of Chinese football. But the next 12 rounds, the story that happened around the national football team and Li Tie, let the Football Association not expect...
After Li Tie renewed his contract, he posted on social media to talk about his feelings
It is worth mentioning that during the previous period when Lippi coached the national football team, he not only enjoyed an absolute right to speak in the field of football, but also had great decision-making power in many aspects such as national team administration, national team formation, training and personnel transfer, home stadium setting, logistics support and so on. Judging from the situation of Li Tie's team, he seems to have the same power, but it is precisely these off-field events that have become the main reason for his encounter with Waterloo.
Now, with the country's humiliating way of bidding farewell to the World Cup in Qatar, Chinese football has really entered the "darkest hour". Although in the past two rounds of competition, the new coach of the national football team, Li Xiaopeng, is trying to find opportunities to use new people as much as possible, and the intention of training for the future is very obvious, but as the team suffers two consecutive defeats, his national football coaching prospects have also become confusing. It is worth noting that regarding the contract cycle of Li Xiaopeng coaching the national football team, the Chinese Football Association has not given an official statement so far.
Of course, Chinese football has never lacked painful failures, after the failure, the national football coach can be changed, the football association can also be changed, but in the current fiery environment of Chinese football, who can come and retreat? In fact, if Chinese football can always do things in accordance with objective laws in the past 28 years of professional reform, less literary excesses, less rough intervention, less quick success, the current situation of Chinese football will not be like this, and the Chinese Super League will not flourish and decline, falling into such a situation as it is now. But unfortunately, there is no "regret medicine" to eat in the football world.
In the next expanded World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, even if Asia has 8.5 qualifying places, with the current talent reserve of Chinese football and the speed of progress of other Asian countries, we still face great challenges in reaching the finals, but there is no way, this is the single that Chinese football must pay for the once withered youth training and the mistakes it constantly makes. Next, the only thing that Chinese football can do next is to make every effort to avoid continuing to take the same "detour" in the next World Cup preparation cycle, and to act in accordance with objective laws in a down-to-earth manner, step by step. So, can Chinese football do it? More importantly, how many Chinese fans are willing to wait for the Chinese football they love?