Yesterday evening, the Beijing time zone came heavy news, China's top soccer tournament - the Chinese Super League runner-up Shanghai Harbour Club, officially announced its withdrawal from the 2022 Asian Champions League. In the face of this unexpected situation, seaport club immediately released an official statement, pointed out that due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the team assembly difficulties, the withdrawal of the move is really helpless.
The statement revealed that the Harbour Club has been preparing for the trip since the beginning of the year, and despite many challenges and force majeure factors, the club insisted on coordinating the trip until the team's departure, but in the end, it was not possible to make the trip. The club expressed its regret and conveyed to the fans the news that the team will be absent from the AFC Champions League this season.
Since stepping onto the AFC Champions League stage in 2016, Seaport has successfully progressed to the group stage for the fifth consecutive year. As last season's league runners-up, Seaport has long planned a phased strategy. According to the plan, Seaport was supposed to leave for Buriram, Thailand on April 10th to prepare for the first group match on April 16th. However, half of the players were quarantined at home and half were under observation, and the return trip was delayed, so the team had to pull out of the AFC Champions League. This is undoubtedly a loss of a valuable high-level training opportunity for the young players in the team.
The AFC noted that there are currently three teams remaining in Group J, namely Chiang Rai United of Thailand, Hong Kong Jiezhi of China and Kobe Nakayama of Japan. According to the rules of the competition and the AFC Competition Manual, the results of the second and fourth ranked teams in Groups F, G, H, I and J will not be counted in the final rankings when determining the second-placed teams in the three groups with the best results in the East Asia Region, and the remaining matches in Group J will be played in accordance with the original schedule.
Despite withdrawing from the AFC Champions League, Seaport has not stopped attracting reinforcements. Just yesterday, the news about Guangzhou's main defender Zhang Linpeng's transfer to Seaport was confirmed. For Zhang Linpeng, who started his career at the Shanghai Genbao Football School, joining Seaport seems to be a return to his roots. After 11 seasons with Guangzhou, 33-year-old Zhang Linpeng has chosen to return to his hometown.
