However, as one of the age-eligible teams for the Paris Olympics, the 2001-age Chinese National Youth Team, the new National Olympic Team, has no basis or leverage for optimism in the face of the upcoming Olympic Qualifiers. Given that the Japanese National Olympic team will also be participating in the Paris Olympic Qualifiers, and that Japanese soccer is currently way ahead of the pack in Asia, the team's advancement is almost a foregone conclusion. This clearly puts the pressure on the rest of the Asian teams to compete on the upswing. What is even more unfortunate is that, as of this writing, the 2001-age China National Youth Football Team has not organized a training session for nearly three consecutive months, and the tournament is even more out of reach. Meanwhile, the Uzbekistan National Olympic Team and the Japan National Olympic Team have already won the second and third place respectively in the fifth U23 Asian Cup, while the Chinese National Olympic Team still has no clear preparation plan, which is undoubtedly embarrassing and worrying.
In addition, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) formalized the allocation of places for women's football by continent for the Paris Olympics at its meeting last weekend. Asia will still receive two places. However, at the Tokyo Olympics women's soccer tournament, Asia actually received three places in the main round of the tournament, one of which automatically belongs to the hosts, the Japanese women's soccer team. This suggests that the competition in the Asian zone of the Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament is even more difficult than the previous one. At present, the main Asian teams capable of impacting the Olympic Women's Football main round ticket are five teams: the Chinese women's football team, the North Korean women's football team, the Japanese women's football team, the South Korean women's football team and the Australian women's football team.
The IOC also announced a new rule - teams competing in soccer at the Paris Olympics will be allowed to field a maximum of 18 players per team, four fewer than the 22 at the Tokyo Games.
