Fan outrage as China FA calls up 55 under-25 players to ‘military’ training camp, ruling them out for the rest of the season
Scheme explains yet another set of new rules regarding young domestic players, some of whom will miss Super League run-in and cup final
October 2 has been declared “the day Chinese football died” by social media users after the Chinese FA launched a training camp that ends the season for 55 young players from the top flight and China League One.
The under-25s will be in the camp until December, meaning they miss the last six games of the Chinese Super League and in some cases the chance to appear in the Chinese FA Cup final.
Reaction on social media has been unforgiving, with most unable to fathom the logic of removing young players from competitive football for a training camp.
The CFA had introduced a rule earlier this week to say they were relaxing the regulations on playing under-23s.
The new rule allowed teams to play one less under-23 in the league for each called up to the national team.
That had left fans puzzled before the subsequent announcement of the camp because there are no upcoming tournaments.
Now, it is unlikely that more than a handful of under-23s will feature in the rest of the season, despite the CFA pushing the development of young Chinese players by creating a rule that clubs had to play a local under-23 for every foreigner.