Enlightenment of “the effect before the World Cup”
The Asian Cup came to an end. Qatar, who entered the top 4 Asian Cup for the first time, defeated Japan, the champion of the 4 Asian Cup, 3:1 in the final, become the 9th champion in the history of Asian Cup.
Qatar has successfully reached the top. Youth training and domestication are the factors that cannot be bypassed. However, from a more macro perspective, the “pre-World Cup effect” makes Qatar’s football enter the “Fast Lane”.
“Pre-World Cup effect” means that countries that have won the right to host the World Cup often have enough time to prepare for the event, thus generating positive effects. This effect is also reflected in the Olympic Games. In general, the Olympic Games decide to host the city seven years in advance. In this way, the country where the host city is located will prepare for the competition in seven years, and the competitive performance will also be improved. For example, in the 2004 Olympic Games, Britain tied ninth with South Korea in the gold medal list and medal list; After London won the hosting of the Olympic Games of 2012 in 2005, Britain ranked fourth in the gold medal list in the 2008 Olympic Games.
The special feature of Qatar is that both they and Russia won the right to host the World Cup in December 2010. Russia has an 8-year preparation period (2018 World Cup), qatar has a 12-year preparation period (2022 World Cup). Because of this, Qatar’s “pre-World Cup effect” has been shown more fully.
Qatar won 7 games in this Asian Cup, and the final champion also played 7 games in the 2022 World Cup, whether 32 or 48 teams took part in the competition, this undoubtedly makes the fans expect the Qatar team to enter the World Cup for the first time. More importantly, this batch of Qatar players are still very young, and there is still room for upward trend and growth.
Think of Chinese football from this. From a positive point of view, we should study Qatar’s “pre-World Cup effect”. Previously, media reported that China was conducting preliminary research and demonstration on bidding for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups. From the perspective of Qatar football, at least lead time after the successful bid for the World Cup, the construction of football atmosphere and the improvement of football level can be seen and touched. Judging from the development trend of Qatar football, although they have never entered the World Cup and have never entered the top 4 Asian Cup before, after successfully bidding for the World Cup in 2010, today, 9 years later (more specifically, 8 years and 2 months), he won the Asian Cup. The Chinese team entered the World Cup at least in 2002 and won the Asian Cup runner-up at least in 1984 and 2004.
Chen Guoqiang