Last night's AFC Champions League group stage matches were all over, and among the 8 teams in the East Asian zone that reached the round of 16 of the AFC Champions League, there were Yokohama Mariners of Japan, Victory Boat Kobe, Urawa Red Diamonds; Daegu and Jeonbuk of South Korea; as well as Jiezhi in Hong Kong, Baton United in Thailand, and Johor in Malaysia!
When Thai, Hong Kong, and Malaysian teams qualify in the AFC Champions League group at the same time, it can be said that this year's AFC Champions League completely subverted the traditional pattern. But for Chinese football in the past two years, the performance of the AFC Champions League can be described as unbearable.
Evergrande and Guoan, who participated in the AFC Champions League last year, together achieved 1 draw and 11 losses, scoring 4 goals and conceding 40 goals; while this year's Evergrande and Taishan, also 1 draw and 11 losses, the goal-loss ratio is more exaggerated to score two goals and concede 48 goals... However, compared with the beginning, when everyone saw the fiasco of the Chinese Super League team and generally believed that all should be withdrawn, such a game has no exercise value; when our youth army gradually adapted to the rhythm of the AFC Champions League and played something, the parties still gave some positive voices. But at the same time, we should also see a cold reality – in the future, the opportunities for young players to "train" will also become extremely limited.
The FA's attitude towards the AFC Champions League has changed significantly in the past two years, how can clubs give up the league?
The reason why young players play in the AFC Champions League can be said to be a special product of a special background. First, because these young players who come to play in the AFC Champions League have no chance to play at home, and if they don't take advantage of these 6 games, they are likely to face a year without the ball to play. Of course, we can also see that since the outbreak of the epidemic, Chinese Super League clubs generally have little interest in the AFC Champions League, and even made it clear that they do not want to play. But if you don't want to fight, it doesn't mean you can stop fighting.
The 2020 AFC Champions League was all placed in Qatar, which was in the hardest hit area of the epidemic at the time, and collided with the time of the FA Cup. Due to the AFC Champions League in the West Asian region that was carried out earlier in that year, it was heavily invaded by the virus, and the AFC epidemic prevention regulations were very relaxed, so the 4 Chinese Super League clubs at that time all thought about quitting! But in the end, BIG4 still sent the main force to West Asia, which caused many players to express their dissatisfaction with such a decision in private. Some time ago, the "Football" newspaper also broke out that of the four Chinese Super League teams that qualified for the AFC Champions League this year, 3 had applied to the Chinese Football Association not to participate in the AFC Champions League.
I don't want to play in the AFC Champions League, why did the Chinese Super League team participate in the end? It has something to do with the attitude of the sponsor. After all, there are many Chinese companies among the sponsors of the AFC Champions League; these companies certainly do not want the Chinese Super League teams to withdraw, and are likely to put pressure on the AFC and the Chinese Football Association. In recent years, the Attitude of the Chinese Football Association towards the AFC Champions League has also changed significantly.
In 2020, the AFC originally planned to start the AFC Champions League group stage from September to a centralized tournament system, but due to the ongoing Chinese Super League at that time, after continuous communication between the Chinese Football Association and many parties, the AFC Champions League in East Asia that year was postponed to the end of November, just when our league ended... In 2021, the AFC Champions League schedule was finalized before the Chinese Super League schedule was set; but at that time, the Football Association gave the external statement that the league would not make way for the AFC Champions League, and whether to send the main force to play the AFC Champions League was up to the club to decide. And this year, although the league has not yet started, the football association first told the club that the opening time of the league was around April 20; even if the time of April 20 had long been rejected by the football association, but then said that it was the end of April; the end of April was no play, saying that There was no play from May 7 to 10; there was no play at the beginning of May, and now it is broken that May 27, the end of May is the earliest time to wait for the news... In short, the Chinese Football Association has not considered giving the Chinese Super League teams time to play the AFC Champions League to make time for this year's Chinese Super League schedule.
The time of the Chinese Super League and the AFC Champions League in the past 20 years is staggered, the FA Cup and the AFC Champions League time conflict, and various clubs can also consider protecting the AFC Champions League; but the time of the Chinese Super League and the AFC Champions League has conflicted, and nominally the Football Association has given each club the right to choose itself; but which club will give up the league?
Falling from 1st to 15th in two years, will the brewing Asian Super League still take the Chinese Super League team to play?
At the end of 2019, the technical score of the Chinese Super League in the AFC rose to the first place. At the end of 2020, the AFC technical score of the Chinese Super League ranked first consecutively. With the AFC technical score as the foundation, at the end of 2020, Liu Yi, secretary general of the Football Association, publicly stated in an interview with the media that the Chinese Super League is the first league in Asia. But just two years later, the Chinese Super League's technical rating has fallen to 15th in Asia. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, And Vietnam are all ahead of us.
The direct impact of the reduction of the AFC technical score is the reduction of the number of places in the AFC Champions League; from the 23-24 season (the AFC Champions League was transformed into a cross-annual event this year), the number of seats in the Chinese Super League is still 2+2; but from the 24-25 season, there is only 1 AFC Champions League seat left in the Chinese Super League. With the competitiveness and attitude that Chinese Super League clubs are currently showing in the AFC Champions League, it makes sense to be cut. However, the reduction of the AFC Champions League quota also raises a bigger question - will the AFC play Chinese football in the future?
Some time ago, a number of domestic media exposed that the AFC has begun to investigate the holding of the Asian Super League, which will be based on the Champions League reward method, and the AFC will invest 100 million US dollars in this event; among them, as long as they qualify for the Asian Super League, they can get 2 million US dollars in participation fees, and the Asian Super League champion will get 14 million US dollars in prize money, and this event will be launched as early as the 24-25 season.
The bonus figures determine the attractiveness of the Asian Super League to Asian clubs, far more than the current AFC Champions League. However, corresponding to the heavy prize, the AFC will definitely raise the entry threshold of the Asian Super League. According to a number of media reports, the early scale of the Asian Super League will be reduced from the current 32 teams in the AFC Champions League to 16 to 20 teams, and the same association can only have a maximum of 3 teams to participate; and the Asian Super League is likely to only open its doors to the top 12 member associations of the AFC technical score in the testing stage...
The Chinese Super League currently ranks 15th in Asia, and if it only opens to the top 12 leagues in Asia, the Asian Super League will not have any relationship with the Chinese Super League teams. Moreover, even if the AFC considers the Chinese market and wants to pull Chinese Super League teams into the company, but when our team has been spent in the AFC Champions League and is so perfunctory to the AFC Champions League, what reason does the AFC have to give our team wild cards?
Who will carry the pot now? Chen Shuyuan's reforms have failed
The title of "Asia's first" in the Chinese Super League was actually established on the basis of gold dollar football and super purchasing power. Now that the tide has faded and so many clubs are swimming naked, it is doomed that even if our team sends the main force to play in the AFC Champions League, the competitiveness will be much worse than before! Coupled with the many difficulties caused by the epidemic, it is now pointless to blame and complain in the face of the consecutive defeats of Chinese Super League teams in the AFC Champions League in the past two years.
But there is a saying in the circle that after the Football Association came to power, it once counted the Asian First League as its own merits and reported to the above; in just two years, the Chinese Super League has fallen from the 1st to the 15th, and then the AFC will not take the Chinese Super League to play, when it went to ask for credit and bragged in the face of the media, should it also stand up and take responsibility?
Since Chen Shuyuan came to power in this football association, he has shown the courage of reform in the face of the media many times, and often takes the initiative to set goals; just by accepting interviews with CCTV and Xinhua News Agency, he has guaranteed 4 times that the professional league will be online immediately. But it has been 3 years since Chen Shuyuan went to the FA to take office (counting from the time he became the leader of the preparatory team), how many slogans he shouted have been fulfilled? On the contrary, he chose to press all the resources of Chinese football in order to gamble on the national team, but the national team was spent in the round of 12, leaving only the picture of the ghostly dance step after qualifying from the top 40, and all his reform ideas have long been disappointed.
The national team has been spent, the youth army has been spent in the AFC Champions League, and many operations in the league have been like children's plays, who wishes for this "prosperous world"?