Yesterday afternoon, Beijing time, the AFC officially announced that the
China Super League (soccer league)
Runner-up Shanghai Seaport withdrew from the 2022 season of the AFC Champions League. Subsequently, Seaport Salon released an announcement that the team was unable to finish assembling the team due to the impact of the epidemic, and the withdrawal was impossible.
Harbour Salon wrote in the announcement: "As early as in early January, the salon began to travel for the matter of the preparatory work, which 1, despite the face of difficulties and many force majeure factors, we have not given up, and still coordinated until the last moment before the team left, but ultimately failed to travel. Here, we have to regret to inform us that the team will not be involved in this season's AFC Champions League."
Participating in the AFC Champions League since 2016, Seaport has been able to make it out of the group five years in a row. As last season's league runners-up, Seaport has long made plans for a two-legged season. According to the original plan, Seaport will depart for Buriram, Thailand on April 10th to prepare for the first match of the AFC Champions League group stage on April 16th. Unfortunately, affected by the epidemic, the seaport players half closed half home, and the return trip is also delayed recognition, thus withdrawing from the AFC Champions League is really a special time can not move, which also let the team's young players thus lost the opportunity to undergo a high-level competition exercise.
The AFC said that only three teams remain in Group J, namely Chiang Rai United of Thailand, Hong Kong Jiezhi of China and Kobe Successful Boat of Japan. According to the competition rules and regulations of the AFC Competition Manual, the results of the competition between the second and fourth ranked teams in Groups F, G, H, I and J will be excluded from the calculations when the second ranked teams of the three groups with the best results in the East Asia Region are produced, and the remaining competitions in Group J will be held according to the original schedule.
Abandon participation in the Asian Championship, but the seaport has not abandoned to strengthen the formation. Yesterday afternoon, news acknowledged that Zhang Linpeng, the main defender of Guangzhou team, transferred to Seaport. For Zhang Linpeng, who started out at the Shanghai Genbao Football School, the
Join the harbor is also a return. After 11 seasons with Guangzhou, the 33-year-old Zhang Linpeng has chosen to "return to his roots".
