A Chinese bid to host the 2026 World Cup would be reliant on the failure of the four Asian countries angling to be selected as the venue for the previous tournament, regional soccer chief Mohammed Bin Hammam said.
Wei Di, the head of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), returned from South Africa last week and said he was keen to bring international soccer’s showpiece event to the world’s most populous country for the first time.
South Korea, Australia, Qatar and Japan have, however, already expressed their intention to bid for 2022 and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Bin Hammam said his priority was the success of one of those.
NOT ELIGIBLE
“Naturally if any one of these countries wins, then Asia will not be eligible to bid for the 2026 World Cup,” the Qatari told Chinese media on a visit to Beijing on Tuesday.
“I and AFC are supporting the chances of these four countries in 2022. We don’t want to jeopardize their chances,” he said. “If we cannot make it for 2022, then we can work towards the 2026 World Cup.”
Having constructed several spectacular new stadiums to host the 2007 women’s World Cup and the soccer tournament at the 2008 Olympics, China has shown it has the means to organize a World Cup.
As well as the four Asian bids for 2022, however, the huge corruption scandal at the CFA and the current parlous state of the national team (78th in FIFA’s world rankings) would be obstacles to a bid from China.
FEASIBILITY
“We are considering 2026,” Wei, who took over at the CFA in January after his predecessor was arrested for corruption, told the reporters. “We are in a position to host it and we are studying the feasibility. But I never said I don’t want other Asian countries not to win it in 2022.”
The 2014 World Cup will take place in Brazil, while the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments will be decided on Dec. 2.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with