Lionel Messi is about to embark on a trip to China, where the Argentine soccer team will start a series of warm-up matches.
On June 16th, Argentina will face Myanmar; on the 20th, it is against Palestine. And on the evening of June 18, the Chinese national soccer team officially announced the schedule of these two FIFA match days.
Meanwhile, Argentine media have confirmed that the newly crowned World Cup champions will be coming to China for a warm-up session against a locked-in opponent in Australia.
While Messi's encounter with the national soccer team was anticipated, the fact that both sides missed out due to their respective positions is, in a way, a reasonable arrangement.
The commercial nature of this tournament stems from a partnership between the Beijing Football Association and the Argentine national team.
The letter indicates that the match will be held on June 15 at 20:00 at the Workers' Stadium in Beijing and will be hosted by China Hongqiao International Investment Co.
The commercial value of the Argentina national soccer team soared after winning the World Cup last December. During the June competition window, the Argentine Football Federation decided to maximize the team's commercial value.
Back in mid-March, news of the World Cup winner's arrival in China spread across social networks. The official microblogging account of the Argentinean Football Association also posted the information, reminding fans to recognize the authenticity.
The organizers had communicated with the Argentine Football Association (AFA) several times and eventually won recognition with a sincere offer, which was authorized in June, Surfing News reported.
However, from a commercial operation point of view, only matches between national teams can realize maximum commercial benefits.
At present, the national football team is in dire need of quality warm-up matches to restore confidence.After the match against New Zealand at the end of March, the national football team started to select international matches in June.
During this period, the organizers have actually been granted the right to operate Argentina in China, but there has been little communication with the CFA.
At the beginning of May, the organizers released the news of Argentina's visit to China through the media, while the national football team had already determined the opponents for the warm-up matches.
Insiders point out that from the CFA's point of view, the match against Argentina is a purely commercial event.
Therefore, from a commercial point of view, there is a need to weigh up the business model and the direction of profitability, and the actual effect of the competition is not yet known.
For the current national soccer team, competition is the key. After Jankovic took over, the top priority for the national soccer team is to prepare for the Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers.
In the process, the first priority for the national soccer team is to restore confidence. The last time the national football team won was in October 2021, when they beat Vietnam 3-2 in the Round of 12 tournament.
The CFA opted for an easy-to-difficult warm-up strategy, which is why Myanmar and Palestine were chosen.
In September and October, the FA considered inviting stronger teams for warm-ups.
The FA wants to choose Asian teams as opponents because the national soccer team's opponents are all Asian teams in both the World Cup qualifiers and the Asian Cup.
From the perspective of preparing for the World Cup and the Asian Cup, as well as the strength gap between the two sides to consider, the national football team and Argentina's warm-up matches do not have practical significance.
In fact, it's not as if the national soccer team hasn't participated in similar commercial matches before.After the 2002 World Cup, the Brazilian national team played a draw against the national soccer team in Guangzhou.
