Source: Surge
On June 12, the "Xi'an release" public number unveiled the Shaanxi 2022 annual sports feast, revealing that Xi'an will host an international soccer invitational tournament for China's national soccer team in November called the "Confrontation Tour", with opponents yet to be determined.
Officials revealed that the "Belt and Road" Shaanxi Sports Feast has 17 events, which also include the Xi'an Marathon and the World Women's Chess Masters Tournament.
It is worth noting that in the past two years, the country has hosted only two international soccer events: the women's Olympic qualifying match between China and South Korea in mid-April 2021; and the national soccer team's World Preliminary 40 match against Guam at the end of May last year, which were scheduled to be held at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center.
Following this, all home matches, including the National Football League's Top 12 matches, are scheduled to be played outside the country.
After finishing the last two matches of the 12-team tournament at the end of March this year, the CFA did not schedule matches on the FIFA-designated matchdays in June and September - a move that was made to ensure the smooth running of the Chinese Super League, which will be severely impacted by the need for quarantine once the national football team goes abroad to play matches and return to their home country.
According to the CFA's planning, the Chinese Super League will all end on November 9th, while the Qatar World Cup will kick off on November 21st. Theoretically, for the teams that failed to qualify for the Qatar World Cup, they have enough time to come to China to warm up with the national soccer team.
However, due to the epidemic, it is also difficult for foreign teams to come to China just for friendly matches. The national soccer team's Round of 12 match against Japan is a case in point.
For the "Xi'an release" announced the international invitational tournament information, surging news reporter learned from the Chinese Football Association (CFA), the Association has not yet arranged for the national football team during this period of warm-up matches plan.
In fact, the CFA cannot decide alone whether international matches can be held in November, and the organization of matches necessarily requires the approval of higher management.
Of course, if the conditions are right, the CFA would love to arrange international matches for the national football team this November - after all, with the move to host the 2023 Asian Cup, the pressure on the Chinese team to deliver results has increased, and the team needs high-quality international matches for bonding.
With an eye on future World Qualifiers, the national team also needs to gain as many FIFA ranking points as possible through warm-up matches.
In addition, if the national football team is in a position to play warm-up matches, the original FA Cup matches can be postponed for one to two weeks.
