Shui pays price for Olympics setback

CFA parts ways with women's head coach after failure to reach Paris Games

Head coach Shui Qingxia has bid farewell to the Chinese women's soccer team after failing to earn the "Steel Roses" a place at next year's Paris Olympics.

In a message posted on her personal social media account on Monday, the 47-year-old wished the players well for the future.

"I want to thank everyone who supported and trusted me. I'm truly grateful for what I have gained on this journey. I wish nothing but the best for the Chinese women's soccer team, and I hope all the girls in the squad will continue to enjoy the sport to the full," said Shui, who was appointed head coach in November 2021.

The Chinese Football Association confirmed the end of Shui's contract in a statement released on Monday.

"As the Chinese women's soccer team failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics, the contract of head coach Shui Qingxia and her coaching team automatically ended based on our agreement," read the CFA statement.

"In terms of the forthcoming friendlies in the United States next month, the forthcoming training sessions will be led by an interim coaching team. The CFA will now carefully consider the selection of the next national team head coach.

"We thank head coach Shui Qingxia and her coaching team for all their hard work, and we wish her all the best for the future."

Shui came under pressure in the summer when a 6-1 defeat to England saw China fail to emerge from its group at the Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

China took bronze at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in October, but a 1-1 draw with South Korea in Xiamen three weeks ago saw the Steel Roses miss out on the Olympics for the first time since 2012.

The Xiamen setback came on the same night that Shui won the Asian Football Confederation's Coach of the Year award for 2022, having led China to the Women's Asian Cup title in India last year.

China's Under-20 women's head coach, Wang Jun, is part of a roster that will manage the national squad at a three-day training camp at its Xianghe base in Hebei province from Saturday.

Team China will travel to the United States next week for its first internationals against the US women's team since 2018. They will play at Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Dec 2 before a second friendly at Frisco, Texas three days later.

Shui's exit was not totally unexpected, but still became trending news on Chinese social media. Aware that the national team's decline in recent years likely owes more to broader problems in the domestic game than Shui's coaching ability, many fans online thanked her for her stint with the team.

This sentiment was also reflected in a commentary by Xinhua news agency, which read: "By missing out on the Olympics, the Chinese women's soccer team also missed the opportunity to level up by playing against the world's top teams.

"The domestic league needs stronger support. The sector should find new opportunities to level up the skills and quality of Chinese women's soccer. It's also about the facilities, match operation and how to attract more young people to the sport. Meanwhile, we should encourage more national team players to play in the top foreign leagues. They can only grow through competing with the world's best players."

Not so long ago, China was a powerhouse of the women's game, winning silver medals at the 1996 Olympics and the 1999 World Cup. However, with women's soccer developing rapidly worldwide, the Steel Roses have failed to keep pace with the game's elite nations.

"Through the World Cup, Asian Games and the Olympic qualifiers, we can see the gap between ourselves and the world's top teams. A key issue here is youth training, which will be a priority in the next phase of development," Shui said in an interview earlier this month.

"In the next two years, we will have no major matches to play. So we have to identify our weaknesses and fix them, in detail. My biggest hope is that the team takes the correct direction of development.

"We failed to achieve our goals in these competitions, but our young players gained invaluable experience from them. I always believe that we can do better. As for my own future, I don't have a clear plan yet."