After the national football team enters the top 18 of the Asian region, it will obtain five valuable home qualifications in the next world preliminary tournament. On June 14, the Chinese Football Association publicly released the "Notice on Soliciting the Host Cities of the Third Phase of the FIFA 2026 World Cup Asian Qualifiers".
Judging from the current discussion among fans of many sports platforms, the call for "professional stadiums to hold games" is very high. In the eyes of fans, this kind of stadium can improve the viewing experience, be more conducive to fan cheering, and even show the level of domestic football infrastructure, of course, there is another reason, many professional stadiums have not been built to host large-scale events, which makes fans feel pity.
At present, some reporters have revealed that the Football Association has tried its best to hold several home matches of the World Preliminary Championship in professional stadiums. But is a professional stadium really the standard answer at home in the World Championships?
[1] The European Cup final will be held at a non-professional stadium
During the 2024 European Championship in Germany, the host country chose the Allianz Football Stadium, which has both a sense of technology and professionalism, as the venue for the opening ceremony, but the hosting right of the final venue was given to the Berlin Olympic Stadium, which was built in 1936 and is the only non-professional stadium of this European Cup.
There is a "big track" Berlin Olympic Stadium. Photo/Jiupai News Dong Zineng
The old stadium will host 6 matches including the final. In the first round of the group stage, nine news reporters watched the match between Spain and Croatia here. Here, the first thing you can see when you sit down is the familiar running track, as well as the wide area between the north and south stands and the goal.
However, a lot of effort has been put into enhancing the look and feel of the course.
The first is the "big runway" problem of the comprehensive stadium, which is criticized by domestic fans. The solution given by the Olympic Stadium in Berlin was to cover most of the area with a green silicone carpet similar to the color of the pitch lawn during non-athletics events. In this way, the distance between the track and the home ground is visually shortened, and the dugout area is not blocked by the runway line.
Secondly, the use of translucent materials in the bench protection area reduces the obstruction of spectators in the low stands to a certain extent. At the same time, the warm-up turf for substitute players is also set in front of the horizontal stands, rather than the north and south stands, which reduces the sense of separation of the broadcast screen and makes the runways on the north and south sides become flexible areas for arranging elements such as team emblems or game emblems.
The Olympic Stadium in Berlin covers part of the track with a green carpet. Photo/Jiupai News Dong Zineng
For the remaining part of the runway, the blue and white main colors of the home team Hertha Berlin were used to enhance the stadium's identity, which was once considered the most special arrangement in the stadium.
As a result, even though it is a non-professional stadium, Hertha manager Dieter Hoeneß commented: "We are very happy for this state-of-the-art stadium. ”
It has been proven that non-professional courses can be up to the big occasions of continental competitions. At the same time, the renovation process and ingenuity of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin can also bring a certain reference for Chinese Super League clubs.
[2] The "blessed land theory" is gradually difficult to convince the public, but the glory of the past is still valuable
In addition to the hardware setup, Germany's choice of the stadium as the venue for the final is also related to its strong sports culture.
In 2009, Usain Bolt set a world record of 9.58 seconds at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. Photo/Visual China
In football alone, the 1974 World Cup was won by the hosts, and since 1985 it has been the venue for the German Cup final. Eighteen years ago, the final between Italy and France was also held at the World Cup in Germany, where Barcelona beat Juventus to win the 2015 Champions League in 2015.
In the world of sports, the venue's influence doesn't stop there. It was the main venue for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, and even more legend was the fact that on 16 August 2009, at the 12th World Athletics Championships in the men's 100m final, Usain Bolt performed a miracle of 9.58 seconds.
And for Chinese football, are there any stadiums that have left good memories? The answer is yes, but after experiencing the famous scene of the birth of "St. Vermilion" and the embarrassing situation of Shenyang's life-and-death draw with Thailand, the "blessed land home theory" has gradually been unaccepted by fans.
It is understood that Changsha and Wuhan are the two cities that are most likely to win the right to host the World Preliminary Tournament among all the cities that lack professional stadiums. Among them, in the 2017 World Preliminaries, the national football team defeated Uzbekistan 1-0 at the Wuhan Sports Center to retain the hope of qualifying; Changsha is also legendary, beating Iraq and South Korea on two rainy nights at Helong Stadium.
In 2017, the national football team defeated Uzbekistan 1-0 at the Wuhan Sports Center. Photo/Yangtze River Daily
In addition, the Jinan Sports Bureau also said that it has submitted a letter of intent to apply for the host city of the top 18 matches. This means that the Jinan Olympic Sports Center also has the opportunity to become the home of the national football team in the World Preliminaries. In the past season, it hosted the AFC Champions League match of Shandong Taishan, and the team defeated Kawasaki Frontale to advance to the last eight.
It can be said that the choice of the home city of the national football world preliminary tournament can not only be determined by the keyword of professional stadiums. Ensuring that players can adapt to the tight schedule as quickly as possible, the cultural base of the local fans, and the maintenance of the turf are all factors to consider.
Jiupai News reporters Dong Zineng and Wu Di report from Dortmund, Germany
Edited by Wan Xuan
[Source: Jiupai News]
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