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Shenhua, SIPG miffed over China selection
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SHANGHAI Greenland Shenhua is in talks with the Chinese Football Association after its key players were selected for Marcello Lippi’s national team to take part in a commercial tournament.
The latest entry list of the national team was unveiled on Monday, a list deemed “strange” by fans and media, as it excluded all players from Guangzhou Evergrande or Jiangsu Suning, the top two teams in last year’s Chinese Super League. Instead, four players each from Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG were selected. Also, over half of the names on the 23-player list are new to the national team.
The national team will gather on January 5 to prepare for the 2017 China Cup, a commercial tournament in its inaugural year which also will feature Chile, Croatia and Iceland. The tournament will be held in Guangxi’s Nanning City on January 10-15. China will face Iceland on January 10, and take on the winner between Chile and Croatia in the final on January 15 if it gets through.
Key Shenhua players Cao Yunding, Bai Jiajun, Li Jianbin and Mao Jianqing are on the player list, along with SIPG’s Wu Lei, Cai Huikang, Yan Junling and Fu Huan selected. Wu and Fu are the two most experienced players in the squad.
The China Cup is jointly hosted by the CFA and Wanda Sports Holdings. Not being an “A Class tournament”, it has not been scheduled on international match days. An anonymous CFA official revealed that more players from the Shanghai teams were chosen because they have already started their winter training, while other clubs like Guangzhou and Jiangsu won’t start their training before January.
However, Shenhua and SIPG officials regard the criteria as unfair. The two clubs started the winter training this month to prepare for the AFC Champions League qualifiers in February, which Evergrande and Jiangsu don’t have to worry about thanks to their direct entry into the tournament. The absence of key players will affect the two Shanghai sides’ preparation for the Asian tournament.
“It (being selected into the national team) is good for the club and players, who will help the national team. But we need to make sure that it benefits everybody, and having the team together in January is very important for us,” Shenhua’s new Uruguayan manager Gustav Poyet said yesterday. “I’m sure that after communication with the federation, we will have an agreement.”
Shenhua heads to Okinawa in Japan on January 2 for training as it prepares for its ACL qualifier on February 8, when it will face either Australia’s Brisbane Roar or the winner of the match between the Philippines’ Global and Singapore’s Tampines Rovers.
SIPG has remained silent on the selection of its four players. The team heads for Doha, Qatar, on January 3 for training to prepare for its ACL qualifier on February 7 against the winner between Thailand’s Sukhothai and Myanmar’s Yadanarbon.
Guangzhou and Jiangsu will play their 1st AFC group stage matches on February 22. The 2017 CSL kicks off in March.
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