Chinese women's football team looks to play 'home' leg of Olympic qualifying play off in Sydney

With its ability to travel restricted by the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the Chinese women's football team is looking to play the home leg of its 2020 Olympic qualification play off against South Korea in Sydney.

With the team having been through a period of quarantine in Brisbane prior top playing its third round Women's Olympic Qualifying Asia games in Sydney earlier this month, China's Xinhua news agency has reported that the Chinese Football Association has submitted a request to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for approval.

The Chinese players currently remain in Sydney after finishing as runners-up of group B of the Olympic qualification tournament to qualify for the last round playoffs.

Commenting on playing their home leg of the playoff on foreign soil, a Chinese team source told Xinhua "we prefer to remain in Sydney. We proposed to set up our home leg here, but it is up to the AFC to decide."

China will play the away leg in South Korea on 6th March and the return leg tie will be held five days later.

The Chinese team had to endure a week-long quarantine after flying to Australia and could not hold any field training as planned.

The Chinese team, two days after being cleared from quarantine, beat Thailand 6-1 in its first group game.

In the ensuing two group ties, they beat Chinese Taipei 5-0 and drew 1-1 with hosts Australia

The third round Women's Olympic Qualifying Asia games had been due to be played in Wuhan - where the Coronavirus was first detected - before being switched to Australia.

Image: The Chinese women's football team beats Chinese Taipei 5-0 at the Campbelltown Stadium on 10th February. Courtesy of Xinhua.