Messi will lead Argentina to China.
On the evening of June 18, the national football team officially announced the information for the two matches of the June FIFA Match Day, which will be held on June 16 against Myanmar and on June 20 against Palestine.
Almost simultaneously, Argentine media confirmed that the new World Cup champions will be coming to China on FIFA match day for a warm-up match against Australia.
The national soccer team and Lionel Messi missed out perfectly, and while it's unfortunate for the fans, it's a very logical outcome from both sides' different starting points.
Messi and Wu Lei have no chance of reuniting in China.
A purely commercial competition
From the letter circulating on social media about the "Beijing Football Association agreeing to hold an invitational soccer match between the Argentine national team and the Australian national team in Beijing", it can be seen that China Hongqiao International Investment Co., Ltd. is the organizer of the match for Argentina to come to China, and the first match is currently scheduled for June 15 at 20:00, with the venue being the Workers Stadium in Beijing. Beijing Workers Stadium.
Argentina won the World Cup last December, and they played two warm-up matches against Panama and Curacao during the international window in March this year - warm-up matches that were already scheduled before the World Cup.
With Argentina winning the World Cup, the commercial value of the team has increased significantly - and with a window of no important matches in June, the Argentine Football Association naturally wants to maximize the commercial value of the national team.
In fact, news of the World Cup winner's visit to China was already circulating as early as mid-March, with a special announcement from the @ArgentinaNationalFootballTeam Weibo account:
Recently, there has been a large amount of content and ticket information on social networks regarding the "Argentina National Team China Tour", all the itinerary of the Argentina National Football Team will be published on the official accounts of the Argentine Football Association and on the official media channels. Please be careful to recognize false information in order to avoid losses.
Relevant informed sources told Punch News that the organizers have previously communicated with the Argentine Football Association (AFA) several times, and eventually got the AFA's recognition with a very sincere offer and obtained the authorization to operate the Argentine national team to China in June.
However, from the point of view of the operation of the tournament, only the matches of the Argentine national team and the national soccer team can maximize the commercial benefits.
The Chinese team needs higher quality warm-up matches.
For now, the national soccer team needs to restore confidence
After two matches against New Zealand at the end of March, the CFA started to select two international matches in June. in mid to late April, the CFA basically identified Myanmar and Palestine as the two teams to warm up with the national soccer team.
During this period, in fact, the organizers were essentially given the right to run Argentina in China, but the organizers never had much substantive communication with the CFA.
In early May, the organizers also released through the media the news of Argentina's upcoming visit to China, but at this time the Chinese team has already determined the opponent of the warm-up matches, and ultimately hope that through public opinion to achieve the goal of the national soccer team and Argentina's warm-up matches, the organizers have found Australia's "rescue".
An insider with rich experience in organizing tournaments told Punch News that from the CFA's point of view, if the Chinese team plays Argentina, it will be a purely commercial match.
So from a business point of view, the business model and the direction of profitability are factors that need to be weighed, and the ultimate practical effect of the competition will be unknown.
Even more important for the current national soccer team is the competition factor - with Jankovic taking over at the end of February, the most important task for the newly formed national soccer team will be to prepare for the Asian Cup and the World Qualifiers.
The first thing the Chinese team had to do in the process was to restore confidence - the last time the national football team won was when they beat Vietnam 3-2 in the Round of 12 in October 2021 - so the CFA's strategy for choosing warm-up matches was to go from easy to difficult, which is why the national team chose Myanmar and Palestine in June.
In September and October, the CFA considered inviting stronger teams to warm-up matches between China and the national soccer team.
For the opponent of the warm-up matches, the CFA is also very clear that it wants to choose Asian teams. After all, whether it is November's World Preliminary 36 or next January's Asian Cup, the national football team's opponents are all Asian teams.
Whether from the perspective of preparing for the World Cup and the Asian Cup, or the consideration of the gap between the two sides, the national football team against Argentina's gimmick has no real significance.
As a matter of fact, it is not that the Chinese team has not participated in such commercial matches before. 2002, after the World Cup, the five-star Brazil came to Guangzhou to play against the national football team. At that time, the two sides exchanged 0-0 with each other.
