According to the official news of the AFC, the results of the 2022 U23 Asian Cup draw were released, the host Uzbekistan landed in Group A, the defending champion South Korea was divided into Group C, and the Australian team and Saudi Arabia were divided into Groups B and D. The Chinese U23 men's soccer team withdrew early as last year's qualifiers, which is also the first time that the Chinese team did not participate in the final stage.
The new U23 Asian Cup finals will be held in Uzbekistan from 1 to 19 June 2022, with the four groups grouped as follows:
Group A: Uzbekistan, Iran, Qatar, Turkmenistan
Group B: Australia, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait
Group C: Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia
Group D: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Tajikistan
In the previous four tournaments, Iraq, Japan, Uzbekistan and South Korea have won respective championships, and no team has yet completed the defense of the title, and the Chinese team has been out of the group stage for 4 consecutive years, with 1 win and 11 losses in 12 games.
Now the results of the 5th U23 Asian Cup are out, and many fans have not seen the Chinese team. In fact, as early as the qualifier stage in late October last year, the Chinese U23 men's football team did not participate in the competition and withdrew early, because due to the impact of the epidemic, the Chinese Football Association decided not to send teams to participate in the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers for the sake of the health and safety of the players, which means that it will automatically lose the qualification to participate in this year's final stage.
This is the first time that the Chinese U23 men's football team has not been able to participate in the final stage of the U23 Asian Cup, and Chen Shuyuan, as the chairman of the Football Association, gave up this training opportunity to make the U23 policy of the Chinese Super League ineffective.
Originally, the Chinese U23 men's football team could participate in the final round of the U23 Asian Cup and then participate in the Asian Games that opened in September this year, but now it can only directly prepare for the Asian Games, and there is no opportunity to train troops.
Compared with the Chinese team's voluntary withdrawal, many Asian fish belly teams have begun to rise, including Malaysia and Tajikistan. Malaysia ranked 154th in the world, Tajikistan ranked 115th, did not have the opportunity to participate in the past, and now after making great progress, they are eligible to participate, the Chinese team chose to withdraw from the competition, lost the handbook, and the future does not know the real strength of these fish belly teams.
U23 Asian Cup players, most of them will enter their respective national teams in the future, and now the Chinese U23 men's football team has given up the opportunity to train troops, and will be thrown away in the future, especially the opponents of the defeated players under the Chinese team in the past, such as Malaysia, Turkmenistan, Kuwait and so on.