The draw ceremony for the top 40 Asian preliminaries in 2022 will be held on July 17. Although coach Lippi confirmed that he could not attend, the team's preparations have entered a detailed level. It is understood that Cai Yong, the full-time executive committee member of China Football Association, and Liu Dianqiu, the team leader, who participated in the draw ceremony for the Top 40 matches on behalf of the national football team, will "work on the spot" as soon as the draw results come out and communicate with the coaching staff in real time.
The registration window for the Top 40 competition has been opened, and the initial registration deadline is August 5, so the coaching staff is not in a hurry to "crash" the list, but should make the safest choice according to the state and physical condition of the international players.
17 draw lots for the top 40 teams.
The Football Association and the coaching staff have prepared a plan.
For the players who are preparing for the World Cup preliminaries, the draw ceremony for the Top 40 matches on July 17 is undoubtedly a major time node. Lippi has recently confirmed that he will not participate in the lottery ceremony. However, because the lottery results are related to the major competitive interests of the national football team, China Football Association sent full-time executive committee member Cai Yong and team leader Liu Dianqiu to Kuala Lumpur to participate in the lottery ceremony.
Of course, the significance of the two representatives of the Football Association going to the lottery site is not limited to "performing ceremony procedures on behalf of the China team". In fact, there are still many specific tasks to be dealt with. For example, where China's new training ground is arranged depends on the situation of the first opponent and the coaching staff of China Football Association's Top 40 competition.
This work is important not only because the objective competition conditions such as the climate of the member countries (regions) where different contestants are located are different, but also because the practical difficulties that the national football team may encounter when meeting different opponents are uncertain, which may have an impact on the national football team's external competition.
Therefore, the China Football Association and the national football coaching staff consciously designed various schemes before the lottery ceremony. After the lottery results are released, the representatives of the two associations will quickly communicate with the coaching staff and finally make a decision.
There is no uniform requirement for the game ball.
Preparing for war requires special attention to details.
In fact, to prepare for the top 40 national football matches, in the specific work process, the coaching staff and members of the preparation team also need to do detailed work. Similarly, for example, although the Top 40 is a major international competition led by FIFA and AFC, FIFA has completely delegated its power to federations on all continents in terms of specific competition design and overall arrangement of the World Cup preliminaries, while AFC has absolute right to speak in defining the rules of the competition.
It is understood that in this top 40 match, the AFC did not require all teams to use a unified match ball. Therefore, just as the judges of the Asian Cup can wear different brands of clothes to enforce the law at the beginning of the year, all teams in the top 40 can choose their own match balls at their own home. In view of the fact that the balls used in the Asian Cup were different from those used by national football sponsors, the preparatory working group also paid special attention to these details. Once the opponents of the top 40 matches are determined, the team's logistics support team will buy all kinds of match balls at the first time to ensure that the international players can adapt in time.
It is worth noting that how to maintain the competitive state of international players has become an important topic in the new training because of the bye in the first round of the top 40 national football competitions. Previously, Lippi did not plan to arrange an international warm-up match for the national football team before the first match of the top 40, considering that the international players need to have a full rest after experiencing intensive leagues, AFC Champions League and cup competitions, and most Asian teams are preparing for the top 40. However, the Malaysian team, which ranked fifth in the top 40, recently indicated that it would come to China to warm up with the national football team.
Of course, whether the national football team can agree to warm up with Malaysia depends on whether it is in a group with this team. What is certain is that the preparation for the top 40 national football matches will be "based on me", and all arrangements that harm the competitive interests of the team will be decisively abandoned by the coaching staff and the Football Association.
There is no limit to the number of people who register for the first time.
Browning still has the possibility of naturalization.
The AFC has no limit on the number of players registered for the first time for each team in the top 40. Although each team can only sign up for 23 players in each game, after the first round, each team can make up other players seven days before the next rounds. This means that even if the "naturalized player candidates" cannot be selected for the national football team before the start of the top 40 due to formalities, they can arrive at the team in time during the top 40 after the formalities are completed.
According to the rules, there is no limit to the number of players who register for the first time in the top 40 competitions of each team. However, each team must have at least 3 goalkeepers for the first time. The rules also require that each team in the top 40 competitions register at most 23 people, and players must assign their jersey numbers according to the numbers 1 to 23. However, players who enter the first registration list do not need to report their jersey numbers.
The AFC's registration method for the top 40 teams is also of great practical significance to the participating China teams. Judging from the past practice, especially in the Asian Top 40 in the Russian World Cup preliminaries four years ago, no more than 50 players will be registered for the first time in China Top 40, which is also caused by the limited talent and technical ability of the national football team.
The registration of the top 40 is actually related to the topic of "naturalized players" that is hotly debated by all walks of life. It is understood that after successfully recruiting naturalized player Li Ke, China team may recruit a few other naturalized players who are capable and meet the procedural requirements, such as Elkson and Browning of Evergrande.
However, due to the complicated procedures for players to change their nationality and register for FIFA membership, whether naturalized players can represent the national football team also needs to be strictly recognized by FIFA, so the overall procedure of "introduction" work will take some time to implement. At present, all parties can't guarantee who will eventually become the second person to introduce naturalized players after Li Ke, and it is difficult to make clear the timetable for the candidates to join the team.
Recently, the Football Association has sent the record of Browning's previous participation in the 14 international competition on behalf of four U-series teams in England to the China Football Association by email.
Although four "competitive" competitions are involved, whether these competitions constitute an obstacle to Browning's change of membership remains to be finally determined by FIFA.
It is understood that Evergrande Club and China Football Association are also stepping up the examination and approval of Browning's "competition status" in the near future. At present, he has not lost the possibility of representing the national football team.
Coordinator/Wang Haozhou