World Cup
Development Opportunities
On December 16, the FIFA Council held its 21st meeting in Doha. The meeting made several new provisions for the development of women's soccer teams around the world, including the expansion of the Olympic women's soccer team's army and the establishment of a new women's soccer World Cup. This will further promote the development of women's soccer globally and provide new opportunities for China's women's soccer team to develop and surpass.
Women's World Cup bid should be on the agenda
At the meeting, the FIFA Council confirmed that the existing calendar of matches for the women's national team will remain unchanged until 2025, which means that it is not feasible for the Chinese women's soccer team to rely on the so-called "magic formula for success" of the past - long-term training. With the increase in the number of Chinese women's soccer players studying abroad, the women's national team can only make full use of the FIFA-designated women's national team match days if they want to focus on their strongest squad for international a-level matches. In addition, it is difficult to send players from overseas clubs for training at any other time. This has forced China's women's soccer team to adjust its current strategy, albeit in line with international women's soccer on all fronts, by making full use of the women's national team match window to schedule a series of international matches. If it is still like before, the women's soccer league will be arbitrarily arranged and suspended to make way for the national team training, the result can only be a repeat of the Chinese men's soccer team's mistakes!
Secondly, the FIFA Council also decided that the host sites for the 2027 Women's World Cup and the 2031 Women's World Cup will be determined in 2024 and 2025 respectively. According to the new plan for the development of women's soccer in China, the plan clearly proposes to host the Women's World Cup in 2031. From now to 2025 FIFA to determine the 2031 Women's World Cup host site in just over two years, which means that the CFA must be as soon as possible to carry out the work of bidding, bidding itself involves a series of related formalities and procedures, the so-called "time is not my wait" I'm afraid that the CFA needs to seek the support of the government, and take action as soon as possible.
Olympic women's soccer expansion favors China
As far as women's global competitions are concerned, an important decision by the FIFA Council is that the Olympic women's soccer team will be increased from the past 12 to 16 teams. This should be good news for Chinese women's soccer. Because in the Olympic women's soccer 12 teams size, Asia only two seats (except the host). At present, the entire Asian women's football range, "five strong world" is the basic pattern, that is, China's women's football need to compete with Japan, Australia, North Korea, South Korea and other top four to fight for a seat in the line, the difficulty is relatively large. In the 2012 London Olympics, the Chinese women's soccer team failed to qualify for the Asian qualifying rounds; the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics had a lot to do with the old and new Japanese women's soccer team, which got a penalty kick in the last minute against North Korea's women's soccer team and luckily drew with the North Korean team; in the Tokyo Olympics qualifying rounds, North Korea's women's soccer team campaigned for the Tokyo Olympics qualifying rounds, and Japan did not need to participate in the qualifying rounds as a host, so the Chinese women's soccer team finally got a penalty kick in overtime against the North Korean women's soccer team. The Chinese women's soccer team eventually defeated the Korean women's soccer team with an overtime goal. If the size of the two teams is maintained, the Chinese women's soccer team may not win against the other top four teams.
However, with the addition of women's soccer teams to the Olympics, 12 teams have become 16, meaning that there could be more seats available in Asia, which obviously favors China's women's soccer team's right to compete in the qualifying rounds. Of course, how will the women's soccer Olympic seats be allocated after the expansion? FIFA has not been further clarified, but the possibility of increased seats in Asia is very high.
In addition to expanding the Olympic women's soccer team, the FIFA Council has decided to establish a new World Cup for women's soccer clubs. Prior to this, FIFA has adopted a licensing system for women's soccer clubs, and the AFC issued a new licensing system for women's soccer clubs last year and plans to establish a new women's soccer AFC Champions League in 2023. FIFA's decision to establish a Women's Club World Cup will undoubtedly further promote the development of women's soccer clubs and professional leagues around the world. It could also be a new opportunity for Chinese women's soccer teams. In contrast, Chinese women's soccer clubs may be more likely to participate in the World Cup than men's soccer clubs. Therefore, the Chinese women's soccer team needs to seize this opportunity. In addition, FIFA will also organize the Women's Indoor Futsal World Cup, which may also promote the further overall development of women's futsal in China.
In any case, a series of new resolutions of the FIFA Council on women's soccer should be said to have provided new opportunities for the development of Chinese women's soccer. The next step depends on whether the Chinese women's soccer team can seize the opportunity to further promote the development and progress of women's soccer in China.
