Chinese Super League teams in this AFC Champions League competition frequently staged tragic cases, even foreign journalists can not see it, a number of foreign football journalists have expressed their position that Chinese Super League teams should be prohibited from playing the AFC Champions League, should be revoked the AFC Champions League qualification of Chinese Super League teams.
In a match that just ended, Guangzhou, a two-time AFC Champions League champion, lost 0-8 to Kawasaki Striker in the case of sending out the youth army, setting a record for the biggest defeat of the Chinese Super League team in the AFC Champions League.
Previously, Guangzhou and Shandong Taishan had already lost to their opponents in the same group in the first round of matches, 0-5 and 0-7 respectively.
Seeing this scene, West Asian journalist Uri Levy posted on his personal social platform that one club sent a youth army to participate, and other Chinese Super League clubs followed suit, even the big Asian clubs such as Guangzhou (formerly Guangzhou Evergrande).
The reporter believes that the Chinese Super League team is not cool at all, but makes Asian football look ugly.
Coincidentally, another journalist, Pigot, also asked on his personal social platform: When will such AFC Champions League jokes stop? In this regard, he said that the AFC should ban Chinese Super League teams from playing in the AFC Champions League and give up these AFC Champions League places to other Asian teams.
Under the epidemic, the Chinese Super League team has no time to fight, either abstaining or sending a youth army to play, which is really a helpless move. In fact, last year's Australian Premier League teams collectively withdrew from the AFC Champions League.
The criticism of these journalists is not unreasonable, and sending the youth army to participate in Asia's top competitions is indeed a huge challenge to the seriousness and authority of the event. Will the Chinese Super League team's move cause strong dissatisfaction from the AFC? Personally, I think it should not be, there are two reasons as follows.
First, the expansion of the AFC Champions League has caused a decline in the level of competition. Even if the Chinese Super League teams do not send youth troops, other Southeast Asian teams are vulnerable in the AFC Champions League, and big scores are lost everywhere. Even before the expansion of the army, the Australian Premier League team was a series of tragedies in the AFC Champions League.
Second, the AFC Champions League is likely to give way to the brewing Asian Super League. It is reported that the tournament, which opens in 2024, is expected to have more than a dozen top Asian teams participating. If the AFC Super League is about to go, then the AFC Champions League will no longer be the first brand of the AFC league, equivalent to the status of the current AFC Cup.
In summary, the only thing that Chinese Super League teams have to worry about is that with the dismal results of the AFC Champions League, the Chinese Super League's points ranking in the AFC is getting lower and lower, and the qualification to participate in the Asian Super League competition in the future will be reduced to the minimum, and there may be only one main tournament place, or a qualifying place.