The successful bid for the 2025 U20 Men's Asian Cup has achieved initial results in the "icebreaking" of Chinese football's foreign affairs

Beiqing Sports

2024-05-24 21:39Published on the official account of Beijing Beiqing Sports News

On May 24, at the AFC working meeting held in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, the AFC Competition Committee approved a series of motions related to major events in Asian football, among which the competition committee agreed to award the hosting rights of the 2025 U20 Men's Asian Cup to the Chinese Football Association. A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned that the Chinese Football Association submitted an application to the AFC in March this year after obtaining the consent and support of relevant state departments, including the sports management department. It is reported that Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, has met with AFC President Salman four times since he went to Doha, Qatar to participate in the 2022 AFC Awards Ceremony at the end of October last year, and before the motion was further submitted to the AFC Executive Committee for consideration and the procedure was approved by the AFC Competition Committee. It has to be said that in the context of the absence of any member of the Chinese Football Association in the AFC Executive Committee, the success of the bid is only waiting for the official announcement, marking the ice-breaking work of the Chinese Football Association and even the foreign affairs of Chinese football, which has shown initial results.

The second leg of this season's AFC Champions League final match between UAE Al Ain and Yokohama Mariners of Japan will be held in Al Ain on the evening of May 25 local time. Taking the opportunity to observe the game, the AFC Competition Committee held the third working meeting of the year in Al Ain on the day before the game, that is, on the 24th local time, and approved a series of motions related to the work of the competition.

Among the various initiatives, one of the major aspects of Chinese football is that the AFC has agreed to award the hosting rights of the 2025 U20 men's Asian Cup to the Chinese Football Association. In this regard, an industry insider familiar with the working methods and processes of the AFC commented: "On the issue of (bidding for the 2025 U20 Asian Cup), the Chinese Football Association has received the consent and support of relevant state departments. For the bid to host the U20 Asian Cup, the Chinese Football Association and the AFC can be said to have hit it off. ”

Compared with the bidding for the men's and women's Asian Cup, the AFC U-series men's and women's football competitions are obviously much more low-key in terms of momentum. However, in the context of FIFA's continuous reform and expansion of the U-series men's and women's World Cups, the bidding for events such as the U20 Men's Asian Cup is actually closely related to the international competitive interests of the countries (regions) of the AFC member associations. It can be said that the bid for the U20 Asian Cup is not only in line with the interests of Chinese football in international competition, but also in line with the idea of "focusing on youth football" advocated by the new Chinese Football Association.

Although the Chinese Football Association only officially submitted an application to the AFC in March this year for next year's U20 Asian Cup, the Chinese Football Association is actually prepared for this bid. Speaking of which, we have to revisit the re-election of the Chinese Football Association and the new chairman of the association, Song Kai, which was completed in mid-October last year.

Song Kai and Salman (first from right)

Just two weeks after the re-election procedure was completed on October 16 last year, Song Kai completed his first overseas work trip as the chairman of the Chinese Football Association - to Doha, Qatar to participate in the 2022 AFC Awards Ceremony. A few hours after arriving in Doha on October 30 last year local time, Song Kai completed a meeting with AFC President Salman. This is also the first international football heavyweight that Song Kai met on this trip.

Before Song Kai became the president of the Chinese Football Association, the AFC completed the new leadership change in February last year, and after the last two members of the AFC Executive Committee by-election in May this year, there was no member of the Chinese Football Association among the 30 members, which was a huge embarrassment for the Chinese Football Association and Chinese football. In addition, due to objective factors, the Chinese Football Association was absent from 2020 to 2022 to participate in major events held by international football organizations, and the association's foreign exchanges with Chinese football were adversely affected. From this point of view, Song Kai's visit has the meaning of breaking the ice for the association's foreign affairs work.

On March 18, 2023, in the final of the 2023 U20 Asian Cup, Uzbekistan defeated Iraq 1-0

In the early morning of October 31, 2023, Beijing time, the AFC focused on the meeting between Song Kai and Salman on its official website with the title of "AFC President Praises the Development of Chinese Football". The AFC quoted Salman as saying: "The AFC will remain steadfast in its commitment to making football the number one sport on the Asian continent. I believe that under the leadership of Chairman Song Kai, the Chinese Football Association can help Chinese football to a higher level. We will work together to achieve this. Salman added: "It is heartening to see the determination of the new leadership of the Chinese Football Association to develop football and promote the progress of Chinese football. Football still has great potential for development in China. ”

After that, Song Kai took the opportunity to attend the FIFA meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the end of last year, went to Doha to compete in the Asian Cup in January this year, and went to Bangkok, Thailand to attend the FIFA and AFC General Assembly a week ago, and completed three meetings with Salman. It has to be said that the many meetings between the two have deepened the mutual understanding and trust between the Chinese Football Association and the AFC to a certain extent, and actually created conditions for mutual benefit between the two sides.

In the course of the dialogue between the two sides, the Chinese Football Association's bid to host the U-series major events hosted by the AFC has also become one of the important topics. All in all, the representatives of the Chinese Football Association can frequently go out and participate in a series of major activities of international football organizations, which is actually very beneficial for Chinese football to make friends in Asian football and even international football, so as to win more opportunities for foreign exchanges and cooperation.

The successful bid has undoubtedly added confidence to the Chinese Football Association and the domestic football community to improve the establishment of U-series national teams and consolidate the domestic youth football work. It is worth noting that the Chinese U20 men's football team participating in the 2025 U20 Asian Cup is the new national Olympic team in the 2005 age group. If the team can compete for a place in the U20 Asian Cup on their home soil, it will be beneficial for them to prepare for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic qualifiers.

Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Yun

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