AFC issued a notice on July 2, requiring member associations participating in the 3rd stage of the Qatar World Qualification Tournament and the 12-team tournament to submit their home match organization plans no later than July 16, and to submit "(third-party) alternate home" plans for emergencies that may be triggered by changes in the outbreak of the epidemic. As of the afternoon of July 16, the CFA has not yet submitted the program. It is reported that, according to the CFA and the national team's plan, the 12 strong match preferred home for Shanghai, and "alternate home" choice is not yet clear. At present, the CFA 12 strong match preparation and protection team is fully promoting the implementation of the plan.
On July 1, after the results of the group draw for the Top 12 tournament were announced, the participating member associations and teams were quickly put into intense preparations for the tournament. Among them, making plans for home matches was the first task, while the organization of home matches was particularly important.
From the perspective of FIFA and AFC's emphasis on the interests of sponsors, it is almost a foregone conclusion that the entire 12-team tournament will be a home-and-away match. At present, the participating member associations of the epidemic situation, as well as the laws and regulations of each country, epidemic prevention policies are not the same, but FIFA and the AFC hosted all kinds of major tournaments to implement a strict "visiting team personnel isolation period. In other words, if this period conflicts with the quarantine rules of the participating member associations, FIFA and AFC may, in accordance with the rules of the industry, require the member association to which the home team belongs to choose a venue in a third party's country as the team's alternate home ground.
As the 12-team tournament will start at the beginning of September, in order to ensure that the preparations for the tournament smoothly, the AFC requires member associations to submit their home game plans and "alternate home" plans within two weeks of notification, i.e., by 16th at the latest.
In fact, from June 17, the United Arab Emirates returned to the country, the Chinese Football Association and the national team coaches, the management team began to start the preparation work for the 12 strong match. At the beginning of this month, the FA 12 strong match preparation and protection team members have begun to "inspect" the home alternate site, the inspection target is the Shanghai part of the game, training venues and hotels.
As of July 16, the national team's preferred home alternate venue for the Top 12 remains Shanghai. The reason for choosing Shanghai is actually very simple. On the one hand, the Chinese women's soccer team Olympic playoff round 2, the national team 40 matches of all the relevant personnel in and out of the place are Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Therefore, once the Chinese team will be the 12 strong home stadium in Shanghai, then the home and away team delegation and the AFC tournament officials in the entry and exit procedures can be fully referenced to the previous Chinese women's football, men's football related procedures. In addition, Shanghai has accumulated successful experience in cooperating with the Chinese women's and men's soccer teams in the entry and exit of competition personnel and in creating a closed loop of epidemic prevention for the tournament. These experiences can be directly applied to improve the efficiency of the national team's hospitality and epidemic prevention work.
From the current situation, this year just completed and put into use in the Pudong stadium of the Chinese automobile is likely to become the first candidate for the national team's 12 strong home games. In addition, Yuan Shen Stadium, which has hosted Chinese Super League matches, may also become the team's alternate training venue.
It is understood that the CFA national team 12 strong match preparation and protection team members recently also specially examined the Shanghai part of the hotel, which also specially for the visiting team in the Pudong New Area examined part of the hotel. From this it is not difficult to judge, if the final Chinese team 12 strong match can be located in Shanghai, then the game place and the activities of the visiting team area probability will be concentrated in the Pudong New Area, which in fact is also in order to better implementation of the tournament epidemic prevention work.
CAC Pudong Stadium
The selection of third-party "alternate home" venues is a more difficult issue for some of the participating member associations, including the CFA, than the local home venue candidates. So far, China's group rivals Australia have not been able to confirm whether they will be able to play their home matches on their soil. The Japanese Football Association (JFA), for its part, has previously indicated that it would like to organize home matches in the Kansai region of the country. However, as the host of this year's Summer Olympics, Japan has also recently experienced a significant epidemic, all of which creates uncertainty for the organization of the Japanese team's home games.
Japan men's soccer team preparing for the 12th round of the tournament
The CFA is full of confidence in the hardware conditions and management and service level of the candidate venues, but because the national team's 12 matches will be held at home and away, which involves more complicated immigration issues, and China is still implementing more stringent quarantine measures to prevent epidemics and the entry of people into the country, it is still unknown whether the team will be able to play the matches in the country as it wishes to do. As for the selection of the third-party "alternate home field", it is still subject to the laws and regulations of the relevant member associations, epidemic prevention rules and the conditions of hosting the tournament. Logically, even if the Chinese team is unable to play its home matches in China, the third-party "alternate home stadiums" will be organized in the member associations of the countries that are not in the same group as the Chinese team's opponents. For example, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates or Qatar could be candidates.
