dense fog of meetings
On February 21st, the mid-level cadres of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) gathered together to discuss and deploy recent soccer affairs, but there was still no news about the progress of the selection of the national football head coach. However, the news that the national football team plans to play two warm-up matches in New Zealand during the FIFA window at the end of March is like a splash of color. In the face of this situation, the future of the national football team seems to be more and more bleak.
Back on February 13, the day after the FA convened a meeting of experts in Foshan, it informed higher-level sports departments and related management of its plans, expecting the national football team to quickly organize training in preparation for the New Zealand warm-up match in late March and for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in November. Unfortunately, the FA has not received any reply so far. Against this backdrop, what is the next move for the national soccer team? This not only touches the hearts of fans, but also makes it difficult for the FA to give a clear answer.
According to the preliminary planning of the Football Association, the warm-up match not only aims to promote bilateral sports exchanges, but also hopes to improve the ranking of the FIFA men's soccer team. Ranking is directly related to the Asian Cup finals and 2026 qualifying draw, if you can advance to the World Cup qualifiers, the national football team to enter the top 18 will be very beneficial; if you can only as the second place to participate in the group rivals are undoubtedly more powerful, advancement will be much more difficult.
For a long time, Chinese soccer has been subject to public pressure due to poor results, and the fundamental reason is the lack of results. Now, in the current situation, the efforts are greatly affected. Although the anti-corruption work in Chinese soccer is underway, the international soccer game will not come to a complete standstill. Therefore, the delay in the construction of the national soccer team may further affect the current results. Once it fails to meet the outside world's expectations, the national football team will further fall into difficulties, forming a vicious circle.
From another point of view, China's ranking in FIFA and technical points situation is grim. on July 20, FIFA announced the world ranking, China ranked ninth, the prospect is worrying. On December 22 last year, China was ranked eleventh in Asia in the world ranking, with 1305.06 technical points. Oman, on the other hand, was ranked 75th in the world and ninth in Asia with 1,321.24 points. In January this year, Oman in the West Asia Championship to break into the final, and finally finished second, technical points increased to 1329.72 points.
There is a technical points gap of 24.66 points between China and Oman, who are ninth in Asia.In March, China will play New Zealand, while Oman are scheduled to play in the West Asia Championship. However, after the UAE dropped out of hosting the tournament, Oman announced that it would play a warm-up match against Lebanon, with a second warm-up match under negotiation. This shows that Oman has not given up on the chance to earn FIFA technical points. As a result, China's hopes of overtaking Oman and moving into Asia's top nine to be seeded among the 36 teams in the second phase of 2026 World Cup qualifying are virtually nil. The fate of the national soccer team does not appear to have changed significantly.
As for how the next national team will respond? I'm afraid we'll have to wait for further news.
