Text/Huang Kai

The National Day holiday has just started two days, when people are still watching the long traffic jam on the highway and watching the crowds in the scenic spot, the Chinese football world once again broke the heavy news: the Football Association will recruit 55 players born after 1993 to form a U25 training team, and start an 80-day training camp after the end of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League this weekend.

【News Link】

The U25 national team organizes training camps

As soon as the news came out, it immediately sparked heated discussions among fans and the media. Some fans jokingly called the Football Association's approach "a return to the pre-liberation period overnight", because this kind of large-scale and long-term training camp was more popular in the eighties and nineties of the last century. After the league began to professionalize, few people have done so. More fans questioned: Is it a bit inappropriate to draw players from various teams to organize long-term training camps at a critical moment in the league championship and relegation?

Following the U19, U21 and U23 players, the new term U25 players has appeared in Chinese football again. In fact, U25 players are the general term for players of the above age groups, and many of them are already the main substitutes or even the main players of the Chinese Super League/Chinese League A teams. Such as Luneng's Liu Yang and Yao Junsheng, Wei Shihao and Barton of the Guoan team, Wang Jinxian and Li Shuai of the first team, some of them started because of the U23 policy, and some relied on strength to occupy the main force.

Although the Football Association has previously adjusted the policy on the use of U23 players, the long-term transfer of U25 players in the team who are in their current years will definitely cause inconvenience to the head coach's line-up and on-the-spot substitutions. There are 6 rounds left in the Chinese Super League, and there are 4 rounds left in the Chinese Super League, and the championship, overtaking, and relegation have entered a critical moment, and the Football Association suddenly organized U25 player training, which will have a subtle impact on the championship and relegation situation of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League this season.

In particular, some clubs that have not had players selected will not be able to enjoy the "dividends" of the U23 player policy adjustment, and the gap between them and the "beneficiary" clubs will be further widened. It can be said that this year's Super League championship and relegation situation will be more confusing.

Professional leagues need to respect the objective laws of professional football development, did the Football Association consult the clubs before introducing the list of U25 players? Why did you choose this time to start the training camp? And there are no 100,000 urgent game tasks, why can't you wait until the end of the league to train? Ignoring the interests of clubs and investors, it is normal for the Football Association to be questioned by fans about organizing such a large-scale training camp.

Rumor has it that the training camp may be held in Lhasa. If the rumors are true, then there is really a bit of speechlessness. It may be that the altitude of the Kunming Plateau is not high enough, and he came directly to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It is recommended that each player be given an oxygen cylinder, and do not run without oxygen and risk their lives. Training in the most unsuitable areas for football, is this an attempt to build the U25 national football team into the "Bolivian team" of Asia?

The countless lessons of Chinese football have proved that long-term "captive-style" training camps do not have very good results.

In the 1997 top ten match, known as the strongest national football team in history, the closed training camp almost drove the players "crazy", and various meetings were held to vomit, which eventually led to the tragedy of the defeat of Dalian Jinzhou;

In the 2004 Olympic Games qualifiers, the super platinum generation led by Shen Xiangfu also adopted a super long training camp, and as a result, a group of spiritual players were forced to draw by the Malaysian team and lost the opportunity to qualify in advance;

At the end of 2006, in order to prepare for the 2007 Asian Cup in advance, the Football Association organized a 49-day training camp, and there was no high-level warm-up game, and the boring training camp made the players very dissatisfied.

Today, the training time of the U25 training team is as long as 80 days, and it is conceivable how these post-90s and post-95 players will face such a long period of closed training life.

The U25 training team was born, too fast, too violent, too sudden, and a little caught off guard. Perhaps it was the zero goals in the warm-up match of the national football team in West Asia that stimulated the Football Association, or perhaps it was the dismal record of the national football team that missed the World Cup and the World Youth Championship in a row, which made the Football Association determined to "change the way of living".

In the context of China's football reform, impacting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 World Cup finals has become a key task for the national brand. Hiddink is in charge of the U21 national football team, Jangovic is in charge of the U19 yellow team, and the formation of the U25 training team is all to prepare for the 2022 World Cup in advance. Although it seems that the U25 training team is a little unscientific and inhumane, the ultimate goal of impacting the 2022 World Cup is to open the bow and there is no turning back.