The recent online reports claiming that the Chinese Football Association (CFA) would not renew the contract of Antonio Puche, head coach of the Chinese U-23 national team and the men's Asian Games team, were false. Photo: A screenshot of the CFA statement

The recent online reports claiming that the Chinese Football Association (CFA) would not renew the contract of Antonio Puche, head coach of the Chinese U-23 national team and the men's Asian Games team, were false, the Chinese football governing body said in a Weibo (China's X-like social media platform) statement on Sunday.

"Antonio and the Olympic-age players are currently making every effort to prepare for the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. The CFA has not yet begun forming the Chinese Olympic team — the squad of players born in 2005 and 2006, for the qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics," the CFA said in the statement.

The CFA spoke highly of Antonio's team for its long-term work with China's national youth teams, its steady improvement of the squad and its achievement this year of leading the Chinese U-23 national team to a historic second-place finish at the AFC U-23 Asian Cup. The team's work has also received broad recognition from the public, the CFA said, adding that communication between the association and Antonio's team remains smooth and cooperation is going well.

The CFA further said that coaching teams that meet performance targets, demonstrate effective management and receive positive evaluations from experts and the public may have the opportunity to take charge of other national teams after completing their current assignments. 

Guo Ai, a Beijing-based sports commentator, told the Global Times on Sunday that one important signal from the CFA's statement is that the evaluation of a coaching team should not be reduced to the question of whether its contract will be renewed, but should instead be considered within the broader framework of China's "all-national-team system."

"If a coach has developed a relatively stable approach to nurturing young players and building a team, his value should not be judged solely on the results of a single match or a particular period," Guo said. "It is more important to see whether he can turn a team's competitiveness into player development, and whether that development can be effectively carried over into the next stage of the national-team program." 

Guo said that strengthening the link between the U-23, Olympic and senior national teams remains an important part of building a more coherent national-team system. She said the results achieved by youth teams need to be considered alongside the longer-term development of individual players and their transition to higher-level national teams.

"What really needs to be watched is not whether a coach ultimately stays or moves to another team, but whether a relatively consistent system for evaluating and selecting coaches can be established," Guo said.

The CFA said it will immediately begin assembling the Olympic team after the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games to prepare early for the qualifying tournament for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.