All echelons of the Chinese men's football team will start a new cycle of preparation

When fans around the world focused on the Qatar World Cup, "Chinese football" did not stop moving forward. It is understood that during the Qatar World Cup, the Chinese Super League and the FA Cup will be carried out normally. The national echelons at all levels will also start a new cycle of preparation in the near future.

According to the plan, the Chinese Football Association will organize and convene national team work meetings at all levels (men's football) at the end of November, while summarizing the preparation and competition work of each team this year, and communicating the preparation plans for various competitions in 2023. The much-watched national team preparation plan was also discussed at this working meeting. It is reported that regardless of whether the new coach can be quickly in place, the Chinese team will organize a new training session after the end of various club competitions in the 2022 season. Encouraged by the good results of national teams at all levels to train overseas and warm up this year, the Chinese Football Association will still overcome difficulties and strive to create more opportunities for overseas training and warm-up for national teams at all levels, especially the 1999 Asian Games team, the 2001 new Olympic team, the 2003 U20 national football team, and the 2006 U17 national football team, which carry the heavy responsibility of the Hangzhou Asian Games, Paris Olympic Preliminary Round, U20 Asian Cup, U17 Asian Cup and other events.

Preparation plan

The FA's meeting at the end of this month will be clear

Preparation plans for each team next year

With the return of the 2001 U21 national football team from Croatia at the end of last month, the national men's football team at all levels of the national football team has officially come to an end in this year's competition and overseas training. In the U20 Asian Cup qualifiers and U17 Asian Cup qualifiers in the second half of this year, the 2003 U20 and 2006 U17 national football teams both qualified from the qualifiers and advanced to the final stage of each competition. This is undoubtedly a rare and timely encouragement for China's national team, which has deteriorated in the international football field in recent years.

At the end of March this year, the national football team confirmed in advance that it would not be able to participate in the Qatar World Cup, and the team has not organized training camps due to objective factors, let alone the match. With the 2026 World Cup kicking off next year and the 2023 Asian Cup to Qatar likely scheduled for early 2024, preparations for the national football team are urgent.

It is understood that the Chinese Football Association and its national team management department have considered that next year's national teams at all levels have more tasks and are affected by objective factors, and face many uncertainties in preparing for the game, and decided to make overall plans for the preparation of each team. According to the plan, the association will organize and hold national team work meetings at all levels at the end of this month. During this period, the coaches and management teams of each team will make a detailed summary of the team's preparation and competition work this year, and at the same time, through this meeting, they will clarify the next step, that is, the preparation plan of each team next year.

The task is enormous

Selection of national football manager

It has not yet been clarified

In fact, the preparation tasks of all teams in the national brand next year are very important. Up to now, there is no clear answer as to who will be responsible for leading the team in the future. It is understood that considering that the competition method of the Asian regional event of the 2026 World Preliminary Round is different from previous editions, the Chinese Football Association will select suitable coaches to lead the team according to the grouping situation faced by the team in the qualifiers. In this way, even after the 2022 season of domestic club competitions (FA Cup) has all ended, the selection of the national football manager has not yet been clarified, then the Chinese Football Association will also organize team training from the perspective of being responsible for the team. As for the specific time, it depends on the end of the 2022 season of the Chinese Super League and FA Cup. According to the current plan, this season's FA Cup final will be played on January 15 next year. Then the new training of the national football team will be arranged after that, but because late January coincides with the Lunar New Year, whether the training is scheduled at the end of January or the beginning of February remains to be decided by all parties based on the actual situation.

In addition to the national team, the 1999 Chinese men's Asian Games team and the 2001 national Olympic team will also start a new cycle of preparation. However, relatively speaking, the preparation time of the 2003 age group U20 national football team and the 2006 age group U17 national football team is more urgent. This is because the final stages of the U20 Asian Cup (to be held in Uzbekistan) and the U17 Asian Cup (venue to be determined) are scheduled to be held in March and May next year. The new phase of preparation for both teams is likely to begin in December this year.

Implementation plan

The Football Association still intends to arrange men's football at all levels

The national team went overseas for training

Rather than formulating a plan, the implementation of the plan requires the Chinese Football Association and its teams to overcome difficulties. Affected by objective factors, in the past three years, except for the national men's football team participating in the Qatar World Preliminary Round, the U23 national football team (Chinese men's football team) participating in the Dubai Cup and East Asian Cup respectively, and the U20 and U17 national football teams participating in the U20 and U17 Asian Cup qualifiers respectively, they have basically not obtained international competition opportunities in the strict sense.

Under this circumstance, the Chinese Football Association has used various channels and foreign cooperation relations to help several national teams implement the good opportunity to go to Europe to train and warm up. In the 2001 Olympic team, for example, they participated in 27 warm-up matches in Croatia in the nearly three months from the beginning of August to the end of October. The U20 national football team was able to enter the U20 Asian Cup thanks to the team's previous high-quality training and warm-up in Europe. Combined with the ability of the U17 national women's football team and the two national men's football teams on various international fronts, it is not difficult to judge that the overseas training and warm-up with sufficient quantity and quality is very beneficial to quickly improve the actual combat ability and adaptability of the players, and also improve the efficiency of the coaching team's implementation of technical and tactical ideas.

It is also encouraged by the good results of overseas training of various teams that the Chinese Football Association still plans to arrange men's national football teams at all levels to train overseas and warm up. "This year, the results of the overseas training of each team are relatively good. Next year, although the work is difficult, the association will continue to adhere to the idea of (arranging for teams to train overseas). Relevant people from the Chinese Football Association said.

It is worth noting that Jankovic, the coach of the 1999 Chinese men's Asian Games team, recently returned to China after returning to Europe for a vacation in October this year. Including Cheng Yaodong, the manager of the U21 national football team (new national Olympic team), and Yang Chen, the manager of the U17 national football team, the coaches of the echelon teams of various countries have temporarily abandoned the plan to go to the local youth sequence events of the corresponding age group to further field inspection of players, and they are all waiting for the Chinese Football Association to issue a meeting notice. Although Antonio, the Spanish coach of the U20 national team, will not be able to return to China for the time being, he will most likely participate in the meeting online. And if the team continues to go to Europe or Siara, then he will be the first to meet the team in the preparation field.

Text/Reporter Xiao Zhao

Source: Beijing Youth Daily