In the early morning of the 3rd, China's men's soccer team shouldered their expectations and boarded Flight MU7119 from Shanghai's Pudong International Airport to embark on their journey to the United Arab Emirates. The destination was to take part in the follow-up tournament of Group A of the Asian Qualifying Round of 40 for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar. The tournament, which was originally planned to be held in Gusau, was urgently announced to be transferred to the UAE on May 31 to be held in the UAE due to a number of factors, including the epidemic.
It is reported that our men's soccer team took off at 13:00 Beijing time and is expected to arrive in Dubai at 19:00 local time in the United Arab Emirates. The team includes 29 players as well as coaches and staff, totaling 58 people. Upon arrival in the UAE, they will go directly to Sharjah, the venue of the match.
It's worth noting that while the organization and operation of the tournament remains the responsibility of the CFA, several working groups, including Du Zhaocai, deputy director of the State General Administration of Sports and party secretary of the CFA, and Chen Xuyuan, president of the CFA, totaling more than 30 people, traveled with the team to the UAE to provide security. Also on board were players and staff from the Guam team, as well as AFC tournament officials.
The CFA pointed out in its statement on May 31 that in view of the recent epidemic infections in the Maldives and Syria, according to the relevant regulations on the prevention and control of epidemics among inbound personnel in China, the players of these two teams had to undergo a strict quarantine and could not participate in the tournament on time. As a result, the remaining matches in Group A of the Forty will no longer be played in Gusau, but will be held in the UAE instead, at the suggestion of the AFC. In the 30th match, our team defeated Guam by a score of 7-0.
