04 Sep 2019
Doha, 3 September 2019. On Tuesday Aspire Academy hosted a high-level delegation from the Chengdu Football Association from China who toured Aspire during their visit to Qatar. Mr. GU Jianming, Executive Committee Member of Chinese Football Association and President of Chengdu Football Association led the delegation that included, Ms. XIONG Yan, Director of Chengdu Sports Bureau, Mr. CAO Xu, the Deputy Director of General Affair Department of Chengdu Sports Bureau and Mr. FAN Fangyuan, Deputy General Secretary and Director of International Relations Department of Chengdu Football Association.
Speaking after the tour, Mr. GU Jianming, Executive Committee Member of Chinese Football Association and President of Chengdu Football Association, congratulated Qatar on winning the 2019 AFC Asian Cup and described the victory as sensational and confirmation of the astute long term planning and a successful football development programmes that are well defined by the work done at Aspire Academy, “ First let me congratulate Qatar on your victory in the 2019 Asian Cup as well as winning the bid to host FIFA 2022 World Cup. Our visit to Qatar has left us with great impressions of the country and the good work been done in youth sport development and coaching. We want to enhance our cooperation and partnership with Qatar Football Association, Aspire Academy and Aspetar in football development. We look forward to welcoming Qatar youth team next year to the 7th edition of the Panda Cup, the international youth association football competition that we run in annually in Chengdu. Chinese teams have held their winter break training camps at Aspire in the past and we look forward to more teams from China continuing with this trend and when it’s too hot in Qatar, we would like Qatari teams to come to train in Chengdu too.” concluded Mr. GU Jianming.
Chengdu, is a top city in China,which is bidding for one host city spot of the AFC Asian Cup 2023 China with a professional football stadium of 60,000 seats currently being under construction. On the occasion of visit at Qatar of Chengdu City Chief Mr.FAN Ruiping, the delegation from city sports authority and football association visited sports infrastructures like Al Janoub stadium and organizations like Qatar FA, Aspetar and Aspire Academy.