East Asia

Shanghai Shenhua Cancel Sydney FC Friendly

Sydney's pre-season preparations have received a blow...

Jul 8, 2009 9:17:22 AM

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Sydney FC announced today that Chinese Super League (CSL) team, Shanghai Shenhua, has advised it has withdrawn from the proposed match scheduled for the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday, 25 July.

Shanghai Shenhua, which currently sits disappointingly in sixth position in the CSL at the mid-season break, cited concerns about the quality of squad it can bring to Australia as a result of five of its players having been called into the Chinese national team squad during July.

Sydney FC CEO, Stefan Kamasz, said, “This is really disappointing for the coach and players because it was to have been an important part of our pre-season build up leading into the season proper.

"We will now have to take steps to identify suitable opponents for our final pre-season match, which will be difficult given the short lead time.”

The two clubs established a formal partnership at the start of 2009 in order to work together both on and off the pitch.