A chief official from the China Football Association (CFA) told a reporter that CFA should learn its lesson from the poor management in scheduling World Cup qualifying competitions, which has led to absence of many of the nation's players based overseas.

 

English championship side Charlton Athletic and German top-flight club Cottbus have refused to release midfielders Zheng Zhi and Shao Jiayi, respectively, for China's two upcoming World Cup qualifiers, claiming the games fall outside of FIFA's international window.

 

China was supposed to face Burma in the first qualification round for the 2010 World Cup on October 8 and 13, both dates within FIFA's international window. But CFA postponed the matches until October 21 and 28 in a bid to give more preparation time to China's new coach Vladimir Petrovic, who took over the job only last month.

 

"We were focused on selecting a new coach at that time, but not aware of the significance after rescheduling the qualifiers," the unidentified official told the Soccer newspaper.

 

"Now the matches are outside of the (international) window and we have no other ways to push the clubs to release the players. We should learn our lesson from this mistake."

 

Charlton boss Alan Pardew has made it clear that he would rather keep the Chinese captain in London.

 

"I apologize to the Chinese federation that they will be without ZiZi for these qualifiers, but I have made the decision to keep him here," Pardew told the club's official website.

 

"If he were to travel, he would miss our games against the Wolves, Plymouth and QPR because the fixtures fall outside of the international window.

 

"I know ZiZi is an important player for his country, but he is also important for us, and I am sure China will be able to get the results they need from the two games without him."

 

Pardew's confidence in the Chinese team was echoed by Chinese fans, who left comments on Sohu.com, lashing out at CFA's "ridiculous" call-up of Europe-based players for an "easy" match against an Asian minnow.

 

"History has told us that every time China has called these players back, their future in the European club has been affected," said one commenter.

 

"We have very good players from domestic leagues. It's not a match against South Korea or Japan. It is really ridiculous to be so nervous ahead of a small match against Burma."

 

(China Daily October 12, 2007)