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Shenyang Olympic Sports Center to host Olympic football games
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2007-04-06 15:55
COC
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During the 2008 Olympics, the Shenyang Olympic Sports Center will host 12 football games: 7 men's (including one quarterfinal match) and 5 women's. In June 2007, the ongoing construction of the center will be completed. On July 4 and July 10, four matches will be held at the newly-completed center to test its overall operation.
In addition, in August this year, a four-nation contest will also be held here. China's national Olympic team is expected to compete with its counterparts from Japan, South Korea and South America. The event will help test the quality of the venue facilities and services to be provided by the sports center. If it passes the test, the center's chances for serving as a sub-venue of the Beijing Olympic Games will be cemented beyond any doubt.
Fan Guanghui, Secretary-General of the Shenyang football Association, told the press, "All the five Olympic football competition zones will host Olympic test events this year. Tianjin and Shanghai are hosting the 2007 Women's World Cup, which is undoubtedly of higher standards than a regional test event. The venue in Qinhuangdao is still under construction, and like the Shenyang Olympic Sports Center, it also has to undergo test matches before its construction is complete. As for the venues in Beijing, the facilities there are absolutely first-rate."
According to Fan, the Shenyang Olympic Sports Center has its advantages. The city, believed to be a blessed place for Chinese football, enjoys a higher support rate with the Chinese Football Association. On October 7, 2001, for the first time in history, the Chinese national football team won a decisive match here to qualify for the finals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Since then, Shenyang has truly become the auspicious city for football in China.
Currently, the center's bidding for the football preliminaries of the 2008 Olympic Games is going well under the leadership of the local government departments concerned.
In terms of investment, the Shenyang Olympic Sports Center can't compete with its counterpart in Tianjin. Moreover, the Shanghai Stadium boasts first-class facilities and a seating capacity of 80,000. Having hosted such high-caliber events as the F1 Grand Prix and the NBA exhibition game, Shanghai is also bidding resolutely to host the football preliminaries for Beijing 2008. Given these rivals, the Shenyang Olympic Sports Center has yet a tough battle to fight in the days to come.
Fan said, "There are things yet to be decided, and we're still not sure about the outcome. I should say the bidding process for the Olympic preliminaries is rather complicated. But we are confident that our center can host such an international event."
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