On May 14, a news that shook the sports world instantly spread, touching the hearts of countless national football fans. The Chinese Football Association (CFA) resolutely gave up the right to organize the 2023 Asian Cup. The news, although shocking, but on reflection, but also reasonable. Public opinion generally agreed that this is a piece of news full of positive energy. Our people dare to make such a decision, behind not only need the overall concept, but also need to dare to say "no" to the world's courage. However, this decision also brings some negative impacts, at least in the next 20 years, our country may not be able to apply to AFC to host the Asian Cup again.
The last time the country hosted the Asian Cup was back in 2004. If the 2023 Asian Cup is held in our country as planned, it will be our country hosting the tournament again after 19 years. Now, our countrymen have given the AFC a difficult task, having to find a new host country in just a few months, leaving them with very little time left to prepare. Of course, the possibility of changing the time of the tournament cannot be ruled out, but the probability is that the venue has been changed and the time cannot be changed.
The AFC, which has always been dominated by the West Asians, agreed to our withdrawal request, and also showed that they have some knowledge of the next host country, and it is likely that this takeover will be Qatar, which will be hosting the World Cup at the end of 2022. Or it is jointly organized by several West Asian countries, the epidemic these two years, most of the tournament had to change the location, placed in West Asia. Therefore, the AFC is not worried about finding the next home, but will certainly have a grudge against our country, I am afraid that the future situation of the national football team in Asia will not be too easy.
Our application to withdraw was, of course, because of the epidemic. This is not a closed tournament, and it is no less difficult than the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The Asian Cup involves more urban venues and a wider geographical area. Our Asian Cup was scheduled to be held from June 16 to July 16, 2023, in 10 cities - Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi'an, Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen and Suzhou - which have a population of more than 150 million and are spread out as widely as the size of Europe's territories, excluding Russia.
If it continues as planned, not only will half of China be turned into a controlled area, but it is unlikely that the tournament will be fully open to spectators, given the situation as it is now hypothesized. Then, there would not be much difference between a tournament without spectators, overseas and in the home country. It was undoubtedly a wise move for our country to give up hosting it. Our country no longer needs large-scale events to show off its national image, and we are more concerned about people's livelihood. If we must use a world competition in a sport as a benchmark, then soccer must come last, which leads to another topic: does the national soccer team want to play in our country or overseas?
Now the national soccer team's only home field advantage has been lost, but this is no longer important to our fans. No one in China with a clear head will have much hope for the national soccer team. If they must lose, then losing farther away will save them a lot of trouble. Li Tie had said in the conference, to know how hard it is to be in the overseas national team ...... how the average person understands the importance of the home field to our team ...... Now there is no chance to print whether what he said is justified or not, the national football team is better to come back sooner rather than later.
In addition, in our game, China as the host is seeded, but now no host status, the AFC still "gift" to our team to participate in a quota, but this white whoring to the quota will be downgraded. The national football team is barely ranked in the top ten in Asia, so the best grouping can only be ranked in the second gear.
The only tricky issue now is the stadiums that are under construction. With no major tournaments in recent years, these stadiums were supposed to be tasked with securing the Asian Cup. In particular, like the Workers' Stadium, one of the capital's top ten landmarks, it was supposed to be kicking off with an Asian Cup event after it was pushed back and rebuilt in 2020, but now that it's nearly complete it's suddenly lost its purpose. Ten cities, ten soccer stadiums, and two of the new and renovated ones have already been completed. Those stadiums under construction are likely to be half-assed projects.
Giving up the right to organize proves that my country does not need to build an international image for itself with major sporting events any more. Our people need a healthy and safe living environment. In addition, the national soccer team will certainly not bring happiness to our people. So cutting up this piece of national heart disease will be a no-brainer for any department.
