Source: Xiao Nan, Beiqing Sports
Song Kai, Chairman of the Chinese Football Association, and his delegation left Beijing for Bangkok, Thailand, on the evening of May 14 to attend the 34th Asian Football Association General Assembly to be held there on the 16th, and the 74th FIFA General Assembly to be held on the 17th. It is understood that Song Kai will make use of this visit to have face-to-face exchanges with some of the world's most influential players. The first heavyweight person he met was the current president of UEFA, Slovenian Alexander Severin. It is understood that resuming and strengthening the cooperation between the Chinese Football Association and UEFA is the theme of the meeting between the two sides.
According to the schedule, the 34th AFC General Assembly and the 74th FIFA General Assembly will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 16 and 17, respectively. It is understood that "by election of two AFC Executive Committee members" and "voting for the 2027 Women's World Cup organizing member association" are the main agenda of the AFC and FIFA meetings respectively.
The Chinese Football Association decided to attend the meeting after being invited by the Asian Football Association and FIFA respectively. However, the two agenda items mentioned above are not directly related to the Chinese Football Association and Chinese football. Song Kai, Chairman of the Chinese Football Association, made a special trip to Bangkok, Thailand. In addition to the normal procedures for participation, he mainly hoped to take this trip to strengthen the foreign exchange and cooperation of the Chinese Football Association.
In fact, since the Chinese Football Association completed the transition last October, the new leadership of the Association has always attached great importance to the external communication between the Association and the entire Chinese football industry, and has clearly recognized that, if Chinese football wants to embark on the road of development, on the one hand, it should steadily improve its internal skills and do a solid job in all basic football work, including youth training, At the same time, we should be good at bringing out the old and bringing in the new, strengthen football exchanges with foreign countries, broaden our horizons, and scientifically practice "going out and inviting in". In this case, the Chinese Football Association must take the initiative to make friends in the international football world, open up a new situation for Chinese football in foreign affairs, and win more favorable external conditions.
It is with this goal that Song Kai embarked on his trip to Bangkok. It is understood that if all conditions permit, Song Kai will use the interval between the two conferences to meet as many important players in football as possible. For example, after meeting with FIFA President Ivantino in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in late December last year, Song Kai also plans to meet him again in Bangkok to seek more and more powerful support from FIFA for the Chinese Football Association and Chinese football.
The reporter of Beijing Youth Daily learned that Song Kai was scheduled to meet with the current president of UEFA, Severin, on the afternoon of the 15th local time, which would also be the first official meeting between the two in their current positions. It is understood that the theme of the meeting between the two sides is to resume and strengthen the cooperation between the Chinese Football Association and UEFA.
It is understood that the Chinese Football Association has established cooperation with UEFA on youth training, coach training, overseas study of players and other contents many years ago. For example, on the evening of December 7, 2021, at the invitation of the Chinese Football Association, the experts of the UEFA technical research team explained in detail the contents of the technical report of the 2020 European Cup for coaches at all levels in China and some business managers through online training. Before the Chinese Football Association completed its change of office last year, the Association had discussed with UEFA about youth football cooperation. The two sides also had in-depth exchanges on the joint construction of the China EU Youth Football International Youth Training Center, the launch of football professional talent training projects such as coaches and scouts.
In recent years, the Chinese Football Association has introduced high-quality resources from European football in many fields in the industry, especially the coaches and teachers. At present, the Chinese men's football team and the U19 national youth team of the 2005 age group (the new Olympic men's football age team) are also led by coaches from Europe, and the new U21 national football team (the next Asian Games men's football age team) will probably also employ excellent coaches from Europe to lead the team. Some elite women's football players also went to play in the mainstream European league clubs. This is enough to prove that the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese football industry highly recognize the advanced technical level of European football. This has also laid a trust foundation for the two sides to further deepen cooperation.
Severin succeeded Platini as the 7th president of UEFA in September 2016. Until his re-election in April last year, he had entered the third term of UEFA presidency. In November 2018, Severin visited Shanghai and communicated with representatives of the Chinese Football Association on strengthening cooperation between UEFA and the Chinese Football Association.
