By sportswriters Yao Youming and Wang Hengzhi
XI'AN, China, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming AFC U23 Championship will be a touchstone of effectiveness of the Chinese Super League (CSL)'s new rule, which requires its clubs to include at least one U23 player into their starting line-up since the 2017 season.
The AFC tournament will be held from Jan. 9 to Jan. 27 in east China's Jiangsu Province.
After China twice made early exits at the group stage of the past two editions without picking up one single point, the Chinese fans were motivated in 2016 by the team's three wonderful goals, despite nine allowed in their three games. In the upcoming tournament on home soil, China is surely eyeing for much better results.
Liao Lisheng with CSL side Guangzhou Evergrande has been tipped as a rising star since the last tournament, and more players have been coming onto the stage in the past two years. Shanghai SIPG winger Wei Shihao and Beijing Renhe defender Deng Hanwen both have been capped for the senior team, and Zhang Yuning, a loanee of German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen, hopes to clear the doubts by good performances.
In the 2017 season, the Chinese Football Association issued a pair of rules, aiming to reduce the number of foreigners in top-tier teams and force them to give more chances to the domestic young players.
Under the rules, each of the 16 teams in the CSL is allowed to sign a maximum of five foreigners, and only three of them can be included in match-day rosters, while two U23 players must be on the rosters of each team, with one as starter.
CFA released a stricter rule on Dec 22, 2017, to stipulate that at no time should the number of foreign players on the pitch exceed local players under the age of 23 in 2018 season. As for the CSL, the total number of foreigners on the pitch cannot go beyond three.
What's more, each CSL side can only have a maximum of four non-Chinese players in its squad, and can sign a maximum of six foreign footballers during a season.
While the Chinese U23 players are getting more and more chances in the top stage of the domestic league, they haven't yet proved themselves on the Asian stage, and all rivals in the group competition, including Qatar, Uzbekistan and Oman, have chances to win over the hosts.
Qatar U23 team defeated China 3-1 and placed the fourth in the 2016 AFC U23 Championship. Their ambition to qualify for the Olympics only stopped after a defeat to Iraq. And this year, Qatar becomes one of the title favorites as its youth legion grabbed the trophy of the 2014 AFC U19 Championship, and surely eyes to develop a strong squad as it will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022.
No better than China, Uzbekistan's best finish in the competition remains in the group stage. But it snatched a win in 2016 campaign. Some key players like Otabek Shukurov and Dostonbek Khamdamov have played the senior games in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers. Seven of its U23 team are Uzbek internationals now.
China will probably face a tough group campaign in the coming AFC U23 Championship.
Massimiliano Maddaloni, the U23 team China coach and assistant of Marcello Lippi in China's senior team, told his U23 players that he hopes to seize the Asian title this time.
And the Chinese fans pray for Maddaloni to keep his words.
If China fails to advance from the group stage this time, it might also affect Lippi's career in China, and the CSL rules will also be put into doubt.
