China youth teams qualify for World Cups amid Fifa hopes of seeing nation back on top stage
Both under-17 men’s and women’s teams reach final stages of Asian Cup to book World Cup spots as Mattias Grafstrom praises Chinese system
Fifa’s Secretary General said during a visit to China this week that he hoped to see Chinese youth teams competing on the world stage at future World Cups across different age groups – and two of the country’s under-17 teams qualified to do just that this week.
Speaking at China’s National Football Youth Training Centre on Tuesday, Mattias Grafstrom said that now there was an under-17 World Cup every year, “we hope to see China there, both the boys and the girls”.
Coincidentally, China’s youth teams duly obliged, with both earning breakthroughs this week.
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday, the men’s under-17 team bounced back from two straight defeats to beat Qatar 2-0 in their final group match and advance to the quarter-finals of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup, where they will face the hosts on Friday. China had earlier lost 1-0 to Indonesia and 2-1 to Japan.
The win also secured China a place in the final stages of the men’s under-17 World Cup for the first time in 21 years – the first Chinese men’s team of any age group to do so since the under-17 team at the 2005 World Championship in Peru.
A day earlier, China’s women’s under-17 team beat India 3-0 in the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup in Jiangsu on Monday to reach the semi-finals and qualify for the Women’s Under-17 World Cup in Morocco later this year. China will North Korea in their semi-final on Thursday night.