Preparing for the Battle of the Bulge:
national soccer team
Increasing the density of preparedness
Recently, the news that the Chinese men's soccer team stayed in an expensive luxury hotel has caused an uproar and become a hot topic of discussion in the domestic soccer world.
Media investigations through booking platforms found that the cheapest room in the Chinese team's hotel in Sharjah costs nearly 8,000 yuan per night. This explosive news was widely spread on the Internet, and Vietnamese mainstream media also quoted domestic reports, saying that "the Chinese men's soccer team will spend millions of yuan in order to confront the Vietnamese team."
On several booking platforms, the hotel's room prices are indeed high, which seems to make the story more credible. However, what the reporter saw on the scene, more than ten square meters of room facilities, it is really difficult to match the high price.
national soccer team
The mystery of the accommodation, the reporter investigated and found that the contract signed between the CFA and the hotel shows that the Association pays according to the daily fee of 700 UAE dirhams (about 1,228 yuan) per person, including the room fee, three meals, laundry and the use of meeting rooms and other public spaces. The hotel will not host any other guests during this period. This cost is well below the official standard for reimbursement of business accommodation and is far from the rumored 8,000 yuan per night.
The hotel manager revealed that it is an industry practice for hotels to raise room rates to avoid bookings when they cannot receive new guests. If the check-in time is changed on the online booking platform to after the Chinese team leaves, the single room rate will revert to the normal price - about 500 yuan.
CFA sources said the hotel was chosen because of its moderate price, new environment and moderate number of rooms, just enough to pack the whole hotel. The move was also made to ensure safety against epidemics.
As a matter of fact, the CFA's income has dropped due to the decrease in royalties and sponsorships for the Chinese Super League as a result of the epidemic, while the anti-epidemic measures have caused the team's costs for overseas matches to surge. How to do a good job of preparing for the tournament in a smart way has become a challenge for the CFA's logistical support team.
Thinking deeper, it is clear that the astronomical room rate of $8,000 is untenable.
national soccer team
The hotel where you stay is a global chain of business-oriented hotels known for their value for money. There are hardly any hotels in Sharjah where the price of a single room is more than 1000 dollars.
Why a large number of people believe in sky-high room rates is perhaps a question that the Chinese men's soccer team needs to ponder. In this story, some people do it for the sake of traffic, some blindly follow the trend, and some are happy to watch the fun. It is not difficult to imagine that the Chinese men's soccer team, standing on the tip of the storm, will face more controversies similar to the sky-high room charges.
Coaches and players may feel aggrieved that they run the risk of not being able to return to their home country during the outbreak, training outside the country in a two-point hotel, on the pitch, and taking some unwarranted flak. But the reality is that when you lose, sometimes even breathing normally can be seen as a mistake.
Excellent logistics are a guarantee of victory, or it could be the blame that comes with defeat. For the Chinese team, the only way to solve all the problems is to win.
