China's national soccer team struggled to find a venue for a friendly against Jordan at the end of the month after a string of cities spurned the chance to host the match, local media reported. Several cities in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces declined to hold the December 30 match, which is a warm-up for an Asian Cup qualifier against Syria.
Eventually the city of Yiwu spared the blushes of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) by agreeing to allow the match to go ahead in their stadium, the report said, citing an unnamed a CFA official. China, who missed out on qualification for next year's World Cup and suffered a string of poor results, have moved back inside the top 100 in the FIFA rankings at number 93, just below Iceland.