A chief official from the China Football Association (CFA) told
a reporter that CFA should learn its lesson from the poor
management in scheduling World Cup qualifying competitions, which
has led to absence of many of the nation's players based
overseas.
English championship side Charlton Athletic and German
top-flight club Cottbus have refused to release midfielders Zheng
Zhi and Shao Jiayi, respectively, for China's two upcoming World
Cup qualifiers, claiming the games fall outside of FIFA's
international window.
China was supposed to face Burma in the first qualification
round for the 2010 World Cup on October 8 and 13, both dates within
FIFA's international window. But CFA postponed the matches until
October 21 and 28 in a bid to give more preparation time to China's
new coach Vladimir Petrovic, who took over the job only last
month.
"We were focused on selecting a new coach at that time, but not
aware of the significance after rescheduling the qualifiers," the
unidentified official told the Soccer newspaper.
"Now the matches are outside of the (international) window and
we have no other ways to push the clubs to release the players. We
should learn our lesson from this mistake."
Charlton boss Alan Pardew has made it clear that he would rather
keep the Chinese captain in London.
"I apologize to the Chinese federation that they will be without
ZiZi for these qualifiers, but I have made the decision to keep him
here," Pardew told the club's official website.
"If he were to travel, he would miss our games against the
Wolves, Plymouth and QPR because the fixtures fall outside of the
international window.
"I know ZiZi is an important player for his country, but he is
also important for us, and I am sure China will be able to get the
results they need from the two games without him."
Pardew's confidence in the Chinese team was echoed by Chinese
fans, who left comments on Sohu.com, lashing out at CFA's
"ridiculous" call-up of Europe-based players for an "easy" match
against an Asian minnow.
"History has told us that every time China has called these
players back, their future in the European club has been affected,"
said one commenter.
"We have very good players from domestic leagues. It's not a
match against South Korea or Japan. It is really ridiculous to be
so nervous ahead of a small match against Burma."
(China Daily October 12, 2007)