The Chinese team will fall out of the top ten in Asia without adding FIFA points after the top 12 matches. The
national football Asian Cup group draw may be at a disadvantage
The final stage of the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers ended in the early morning of June 15, Beijing time.
In the final round of Group D in Kolkata, India, China's Hong Kong team lost 0-4 to India.
However, due to the fact that the Philippines team in Group B lost to the Palestinian team 0-4 before this, the team with the worst results in the 6 groups of this stage was divided into 4 points. Therefore, the Hong Kong team with 6 points was the 5th team. One of the best 2nd place teams in the group to advance to the final stage.
This is the Hong Kong team's return to the Asian Cup finals after a lapse of 55 years.
For the first time, the Chinese team and the Chinese Hong Kong team entered the Asian Cup at the same time.
Regrettably, the final stage of the Asian Cup, which was originally planned to be held in China in July next year, was confirmed to be held in another place, and the Chinese team lost the "home field advantage".
Affected by objective factors, the team has a high probability of not participating in any international competitions this year.
On the issue of the Asian Cup grouping, the Chinese team is likely to be at a disadvantage.
All 24 rounds of the Asian Cup
China Hong Kong team locks in tickets
In the early morning of June 15th, Beijing time, the AFC reported all the news of the 2023 Asian Cup quarterfinals on an important position on its official website.
The AFC said, "The final stage of the Asian Cup qualifiers will be held in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Kolkata (India), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Kuwait City (Kuwait), Namangan (Uzbekistan) ) and Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), the final 11 tickets for the final stage were generated. Among them, Tajikistan, as the top team in Group F, entered the Asian Cup for the first time, making history. These 11 teams will Adding color to the competition in the final stage with the 13 teams that advanced early."
For the majority of Chinese fans, the most worthy of attention is the promotion of the Chinese Hong Kong team.
In the first two rounds of the qualifiers at this stage, they defeated Afghanistan 2-1 and Cambodia 3-0 respectively.
At noon on June 14, Beijing time, the Philippine team lost to the Palestinian team 0-4, thus becoming the second worst team in the 6 groups with 4 points.
Therefore, the Chinese Hong Kong team has actually locked the tickets for the main game before the away game against the Indian team.
Because the Qatar World Qualifiers and the first two stages of the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers are merged, all the teams that make it to the top 12, including the Chinese team, will directly get tickets for the Asian Cup.
Although Qatar, the host team of this World Cup, did not participate in the round of 12, it achieved excellent results in the round of 40 and secured tickets for the Asian Cup in advance.
In this way, the representative teams of the other 24 member associations of the AFC will have to compete for the remaining 11 tickets for the main game through the final stage of the qualifiers.
Among them, 6 group winners and 5 second-place teams with the best results advance.
The Chinese Hong Kong team ranked 3rd among the 2nd teams in these 5 groups and successfully advanced.
With all the top 24 in the Asian Cup, the Chinese team and the Chinese Hong Kong team have entered the same Asian Cup final for the first time.
After changing the host
Group lottery method has changed
After the relocation of the event was confirmed in the final stage of the event, there is no conclusion on where the event will be held.
According to the contingency plan of the AFC, if its member associations intend to take over, they must apply to the AFC by June 30 at the latest.
Not long ago, some foreign media speculated that since other member associations of the AFC have no intention to host the Asian Cup for the time being, the event may still be hosted by China.
However, such speculations or rumors lack solid factual support.
Due to the relocation of the event, the relevant work of the Chinese Organizing Committee of the 2023 Asian Cup has come to an end.
The proper arrangement of the original members of the organizing committee has been quietly started.
Before the relocation of the tournament was confirmed, the Chinese team was supposed to participate in the 2023 Asian Cup finals as a seeded team.
However, with the relocation of the game, the group drawing method around the final stage of the event will inevitably change.
However, normally, the AFC will use the most recent international rankings of the men's football teams (national teams) of the member associations of FIFA before the draw ceremony as the main basis for the group draw.
No competition after the top 12
The Chinese team did not get any points
May 30 to June 14 is FIFA's most recent international breakout cycle.
While most of the representative teams (national teams) of the AFC member associations take this opportunity to conduct various international competitions, the Chinese team has not played a single game.
Based on the recent matches of the AFC teams (national teams) in international A-level competitions, the Chinese team will further decline in the latest FIFA rankings of countries and regions in the world, with a high probability of falling out of the top ten in Asia.
Affected by the epidemic, the new season of the Chinese Super League will not start until the 3rd of this month.
This coincides with the international breakout cycle.
After finishing the top 12 tour in late March this year and confirming in advance that they would not qualify for the Qatar World Cup finals, the Chinese team has no major task of preparing for the competition this year, so the team has not arranged training camps, and naturally cannot participate in international warm-up matches at home or abroad.
It is understood that most national teams at all levels in other Asian countries and regions use this international match day cycle to compete.
For example, the national teams of Japan and South Korea have arranged no less than 4 international games.
The Australian team participated in two World Qualifiers play-offs and eventually advanced.
The Chinese team will fall out of the top 10 in Asia
Directly affects the Asian Cup draw
The results of the Asian preliminaries show that Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Palestine, and India won the first place in this group with 3 wins in the Asian Cup qualifier group stage, thus gaining more than 20 international ranking points. .
Among them, the Uzbekistan team, which closely followed the Chinese team in the international rankings in late March, scored 20.14 points, with a total score of 1306.69 points.
In this way, the Uzbekistan team will surpass the Chinese team in the international standings and be among the top ten in Asia.
If nothing else, the Chinese team has dropped from 77th in the world to 79th in the latest FIFA national team ranking to be announced on June 23, ranking 11th in Asia.
The Bahrain team scored 23.97 points in 3 games, with a total technical score of 1286.52 points. Following the Chinese team, the world ranking will rise to 85th, and it will rank 12th in Asia.
However, once the Bahrain team participates in more warm-up matches next, the points may surpass the Chinese team.
The Chinese team was unable to participate in an international A-level match after the top 12, and the points remained unchanged.
For the team, the only chance to obtain FIFA ranking points this year is the East Asia Cup Championship in Japan in late July.
It's just that in the face of such strong teams as South Korea and Japan, if the Chinese team cannot win or draw, they will also be deducted certain technical points.
It can be seen that the results of the East Asian Cup are closely related to the competitive interests of the Chinese team in various competitions in the future.
More importantly, the FIFA ranking will be the main basis for the group draw of the 2023 Asian Cup in the future.
Text/Co-ordinator by our reporter Xiao Xun/Du Rui