Chinese Men's National Football Team holds an official training session ahead of the match against Japan at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha at 5:45 pm, local time, on September 5, 2021. Photo: CFA's Weibo

The Chinese national football team is doing its best to ensure that three naturalized players arrive in Tokyo to join the rest of the team, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) said on Sunday, expressing understanding and apologizing for the anger one of the players showed after being stranded in an airport in the Netherlands due to a flight cancelation.

The Chinese national football team has departed from Shanghai to Tokyo on Sunday for World Cup qualifier against Japan on January 27.

The three naturalized football players Luo Guofu (Aloísio dos Santos Gon?alves), Fernando Henrique da Concei??o, and Alan Douglas Borges de Carvalho, were scheduled to fly from Brazil to Japan, with a transit in the Netherlands, to join the rest of the team in Tokyo on the same day.   

However, the three were left stranded at the airport after the flight from Amsterdam to Tokyo, which was scheduled to depart Saturday afternoon, was canceled. 

Luo Guofu posted on Sina Weibo Sunday early morning that they arrived in the Netherlands only to find their next flight had been canceled. They had to wait for more than eight hours and then another 14 hours without a place to stay. 

"You don't respect us at all," said Luo Guofu, who questioned the CFA's arrangements.

The post made waves on Chinese social media, with some netizens expressing sympathy to the players. Some said that someone had finally spoken up against the CFA's disorganization. Public feeling against the association comes partly from discontent with the national football team's performances over the past years. 

But some netizens said no conclusions could be reached before it was clear about what exactly happened. 

The Xinhua News Agency managed to contact the national team and learned that the Japanese government required the entire team to enter the country in the same time block. The CFA booked flights for the three players so that they could arrive at roughly the same time as the other team members. 

After the original flight was canceled, the CFA attempted to plan a different transit route for the players, but no feasible plans could be drawn up due to visas and restrictions from epidemic prevention policies of some EU countries. 

The CFA also has to negotiate with the Japanese side, via FIFA mediation, to allow the three to enter later than the other players. 

When the flight was canceled, hotels inside the Dutch airport were full, and as the Netherlands has scrapped transit visas during the pandemic, the players could not stay at a hotel outside the airport. The VIP lounges at the airport were also closed for overnight services due to epidemic prevention requirements, leaving the three players stranded in the airport, Xinhua reported.

The Chinese national team finally decided to book the players on the earliest Sunday flight from Amsterdam to Tokyo, a team manager explained.

The manager said that it is understandable that the player was emotional after the cancelation and said the association has apologized for the situation. The national team will strengthen communication with the naturalized players to promote better understanding.

Global Times