On July 6, 2022, the officials of China's Chinese First Division released an announcement stating that Beijing Polytechnic had forfeited two rounds of matches at the beginning of the season for some reason. In response, Beijing Polytechnic Football Club quickly responded and released the details today.
According to an announcement from the league's organizing committee, Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) was unable to participate in the first and second rounds of the 2022 China First Division League due to an epidemic that prevented the team from arriving at the tournament on time. Due to the constraints of the tournament system and schedule, it is not possible to arrange a make-up match at this time. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the 2022 Chinese Football Association First Division League rules, Beijing Polytechnic will be automatically forfeited in these two rounds.
BITFC mentioned in the statement that recently there were media reports that the team failed to participate in the competition because the management did not arrive at the competition area on time, to which the club made the following response:
1. Since May 18th, there has been an outbreak of epidemic on the campus of Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). In accordance with the requirements of the Beijing Municipal Epidemic Prevention and Control Policy, the campus has been closed for management, and teachers and students are prohibited from entering and exiting the campus.
2. During the epidemic, the club communicated with the management several times to suspend the activities in the competition area and to meet the epidemic prevention standards as required, but failed to obtain clear guidance on the epidemic prevention policy.
3. On June 10, the team traveled to the designated hotel in Nanjing with the support of the competition area in a point-to-point closed-loop manner and underwent 7 days of isolated health monitoring.
4. The club had applied to participate in the second round match against Jiangxi, but the organizing committee of the tournament rejected the application due to epidemic prevention and control reasons.
5. In last season's league, clubs were refused entry due to travel to an epidemic risk area, but the management adjusted the fixtures to ensure that the teams involved in the epidemic completed the full fixtures successfully.
The club emphasizes that, as a well-known university team in China, it respects and understands the local and tournament regulations on epidemic prevention and is willing to cooperate actively. At the same time, the team cherishes the opportunity to exercise and learn in the professional league and expects to win on the field. To this end, the club will continue to strive to appeal through the bye route in the first and second rounds of this season's Central League matches, and hopes that the management will consider this carefully.
