The Chinese soccer delegation was quite large, including the men's national team, the U23 national football team, and many staff members of the Football Association (FA). They not only include members of the Foreign Affairs Department of the FA who were involved in the FIFA Congress, the East Asian Football Confederation Summit and the World Cup draw on April 1, but also joined the delegation on their way home after completing their tasks at the conference. All members are expected to be in Haikou under the "14+7" quarantine measure. During this period, as the league approaches, the team will take a short break and then quickly get back to regular training to build up momentum for the new season. At the same time, the national team's work summary, the future plan of the U23 national football team and the deployment of training will also be carried out in full swing.
It should not be overlooked that during the epidemic, the Chinese men's national soccer team's performance in the Top 12 tournament fell short of expectations and even sparked concern in the community. However, it must be emphasized that as a whole delegation, they were stranded overseas for several months, from the 40-team tournament that ended in Sharjah in June last year, to the trip to Doha in late August, to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates in late November, and to Japan and Vietnam before this year's Lunar New Year, up to the current third visit to the United Arab Emirates and the transfer to Oman, a total of five international flights. Despite staying outside the country for more than a hundred days, no matter the number of people, all of them returned home safely without a single suspected or confirmed case. This is in stark contrast to other sports teams that frequently have confirmed cases when training overseas. In addition, during the 12-team tournament, the other 11 participating teams had players, coaches or staff members infected, while the Chinese team had not had a single case of suspected or confirmed illness. This fully proves the excellent performance of the FA in epidemic prevention and safety work, which cannot be separated from the hard work of the staff.
