Source: Xiao Nan, Beiqing Sports
In the third and fourth finals of the U17 Women's Asian Cup held in Bali, Indonesia, on May 19, the Chinese U17 Women's Football Team lost to the South Korean U17 Women's Football Team 1-2, which made it impossible to participate in the new U17 Women's World Cup held in the Dominican Republic in the second half of this year. This also means that the 59 year old Australian coach Gary Van Egmund failed to complete the task of leading the team at the stage as agreed in the contract, so the Chinese Football Association will terminate the cooperation with him.
On January 25 this year, the Chinese Football Association announced through official channels that it would hire Australian Van Egmund as the coach of the Chinese U17 Women's Football Team. As a result, the Chinese U17 Women's Football Team ended up in failure in this year's U17 Asian Cup. As the head coach, Van Egmund has an unshirkable responsibility. According to the reporter of Beijing Youth Daily, the Football Association has given up his intention to renew his employment.
It is worth noting that FIFA confirmed at the 27th working meeting of the Council held in March this year that the U17 Men's and Women's World Cup will be held once a year from 2025. At the 28th working meeting of the Council held in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 15, FIFA also clarified the specific allocation method of the number of football federations in each continent for the two events from 2025 to 2029. The resolution shows that the size of the U17 Women's World Cup will be expanded from the current 16 teams to 24 teams. According to the quota allocation method, the Asian Football Confederation (Asia) will get four tickets to the U17 Women's World Cup every year in the next four years, one more than this tournament. In other words, the teams that can be ranked in the top four of the next U17 Women's Asian Cup will be qualified for the U17 Women's World Cup.
For the new Chinese U17 Women's Football Team, this change is encouraging. However, with the increasing frequency of the U17 Women's World Cup and the increase of the competition scale, the Asian Football Federation does not rule out the possibility of adjusting the competition methods of the Asian region of the U17 Women's World Cup and U17 Women's World Cup preliminaries to increase the capacity of the event. If so, it will not be easier for China's U17 Women's Football Team to compete in the U17 Women's World Cup.
After the defeat of the current Chinese U17 Women's Football Team in Bali Island, the new Chinese U17 Women's Football Team has no time to delay. The Chinese Football Association will make a summary of the team formation, preparation and competition of this U17 women's football team in the near future, and will implement the selection of the new U17 women's football coach.
