Iraqi player Samal Said (right) fight for the ball with Yu Hanchao of China during their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Doha on Friday. [Karim Jaafar / Agence France-Presse]

Soccer's governing body will continue its contract with Camacho despite bitter loss

BEIJING - For the third time in a row, China's national soccer team bid an early farewell to World Cup qualification.

However, this may be a particularly bitter result for China coach Jose Antonio Camacho and the Chinese Football Association (CFA).

Camacho, who took charge of the team in August, has to face the reality that his squad will have no formal international matches over the next three years.

While the CFA, which has been blamed for changing the coach before crucial qualifiers, now must outline the future of the Spanish coaching team, which is being paid more than 40 million yuan ($6.26 million) a year, according to the three-year contract.

China suffered its third straight loss in Asian qualifying for the 2014 World Cup when Iraqi striker Younis Mahmoud smashed its hopes in stoppage time of Friday's game in Qatar.

There remains a distant chance for China to qualify if Iraq loses its next two games, including one with lowly -ranked Singapore, while China must win both of its games by large margins.

CFA deputy chief Yu Hongchen said the association would continue its contract with Camacho.

"We always said we invited a foreign coach to China for long-term development, instead of merely for a position in the last phase of the qualifiers, or the World Cup final," Yu said. "We have set our sight on the future; for example, the systematic training of teenage players, and that's the reason why we recruited a coaching team, instead of just the coach himself.

"Though our national team will have no important matches to play over the next three years, Camacho will take part in the construction of China's teenage development system, and also help domestic coaches to improve," Yu said.

In a response to the effect of, as some Chinese media has called it, "the hasty replacement of coach", Yu said although China has missed out on the World Cup, Chinese players and coaches have already benefited from the Spaniards' soccer philosophy.

"The coaching team is very professional, and it has passed on a lot of advanced ideas and methods to our players," he said. "The coach always said it's not enough to understand the sport by playing, you should know it's connotations - the so-called soccer philosophy. And I think our players and coaches have learned a lot from this perspective."

Yu also said the CFA should take responsibility for the team's failure to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and not the coach or players.

"We prepared for this (Iraq) match carefully and came here with a lot of expectations, but we didn't get a good result. None of us are happy with this result. The players are disappointed, so are the fans," said Yu of the 1-0 loss. "The CFA should be blamed for the loss there are a lot of problems, especially in our cultivation of players. We must lay a solid foundation for Chinese soccer in the future in terms of youth development and domestic league reform," he said.

The Chinese team will play its next game in Singapore on Tuesday. Yu said despite the disappointment, he expected the team to play with plenty of desire.

"The most important thing for us now is to calm down. We can't regard Singapore as a weak opponent," Yu said. "We will by no means give up the game because we have been knocked out. Instead, we need to play for our countrymen and with great spirit."

China Daily