Recently, it was reported that the World Cup champion Argentina will come to China in June to play a warm-up match with the Chinese national football team. However, since the national football team's schedule was determined as early as the end of March, and the opponent was not Argentina, the news was strange. And as more relevant information was revealed, the truth behind this slightly strange "warm-up match" between the national football team and Argentina finally came out.
According to a document disclosed on social media, the sponsor who promoted the Argentine national team's competition in China is called "China Hongqiao International Investment Co., Ltd." The company plans to arrange two warm-up games for Argentina in China, against the Chinese national football team and Iran, and paid more than $2 million in appearance fees as a result. In a report submitted by the company on March 31, "Request for Coordination of the Friendly Match between the Chinese National Football Team and the Argentine National Team," it even asked higher-level leaders to "coordinate" the Chinese men's football team's participation.
However, it should be known that the warm-up match arrangement between the national football team and Palestine and Myanmar was studied and determined in late March, and it was also confirmed by the other football association at that time. According to FIFA regulations, international competitions like this must also be reported to FIFA. However, the sponsor did not communicate well with the football association and the national football team already had a match schedule, forced the national football team to arrange an unplanned match, and even tried to interfere with the game schedule by administrative order. Such behavior inevitably has the intention of "blackmailing" the Football Association.
Therefore, the news that the Argentine team will play a warm-up match with the national football team in recent days is obvious, that is, to continue to pressure the Chinese Football Association to change the original warm-up match arrangement. As for why sponsors must let the national football team play, in fact, the reason is very simple, that is, since the game is played in China, if Argentina's opponent is not the national football team, the impact of the game will be greatly reduced, and it will be difficult to obtain the expected effect. From this point of view, the national football team is just a proper prop for profit.
But then again, although the strength of the national football team is not good, but it is also a serious national team, the Chinese Football Association is also a member under FIFA, this kind of competition involving the international level, but also have to follow the rules of FIFA, how can you rush to "private" it to cooperate with the sponsor's own selfish desires? If the national football team defaults on Palestine and Myanmar this time, it may even suffer heavy penalties from FIFA for violations. Although it is a pity for the national football team not to be able to compete with Argentina, it is time for this farce to end.