On July 4, the Chinese Football Association officially announced that Dalian will host the Chinese team’s World Cup Qualifiers in September. The 18th round of the World Cup Qualifiers, China vs. Saudi Arabia, will be held at Dalian’s Sōyūwan Football Stadium. The Beijing Youth Daily has published an explanation as to why Dalian was selected as the host city.
The Chinese Football Association also previously stated that the selection of the home venue primarily considered factors such as the team’s travel, climatic conditions, and social benefits.
First, the national team’s home venue should be convenient for the national team’s travel, reducing travel consumption. The national team hopes to return to China the day after finishing its away match against Japan (September 6) to prepare for the home game against Saudi Arabia on September 10, and hopes to set the home venue in a city that can be reached by a direct flight from Tokyo.
Second, considering climatic conditions, the national team’s home venue should be conducive to the national team’s overall preparation. The national team believes that the temperature in southern China will be high and humidity will be high in September, with frequent thunderstorms. It is suggested that the home venue be selected in a northern city with a climate similar to that of Japan, which is more suitable for training and competition. The national team also plans to organize a training camp in this city before going to Japan to adapt to the weather in both home and away games.
In addition, the Beijing Youth Daily pointed out in its article that fan enthusiasm, ticket sales, and revenue prospects are also one of the hard indicators for the selection of the national team’s home venue, and Dalian, known as the “Football City”, is undoubtedly a leader in this regard.
For example, the recent China League One (CL1) focus match between Dalian Everbright and Yunnan Yukun attracted more than 45,000 spectators to the Sōyūwan Football Stadium. In addition to the excellent venue conditions and reception and service standards, Dalian’s “winning bid” also comes from its rich experience in organizing events.
The report concludes that in addition to the nine cities that applied to host the China vs. Saudi Arabia World Cup Qualifiers, several other cities also applied to host the national team’s remaining four home games in the 18th round.
For example, the Beijing Football Association and the Qingdao Football Association submitted applications to the Chinese Football Association for the national team’s other home game venues in the 18th round. A significant number of cities also applied for two or more venues. For example, Qingdao plans to host a total of three games: October 15 (China vs. Indonesia), November 19 (China vs. Japan), and June 10 next year (China vs. Bahrain). The specific application results will need to wait for further notification from the Chinese Football Association.
This article is from a user submission and does not represent the views of Soccer News Pick. If you repost it, please indicate the source: https://www.soccernewspick.com/other/7042.html
