Thiefs, Police, fans, and disappointment

Fantastic read from Jo Saunders, The Australian Team Manager below. Gives a real sense of the impact of yesterday's cancellation in the fans and family's and a group of Queensland schoolchildren.

Adjust your sets, tonight is the night...we hope.

From Jo,

Round 3, take 2. Hopefully this time we'll actually get to the stadium for our match! By all accounts there shouldn't be any last-minute changes today. But there is time, it is only midday after all ......



I've just come out of a surreal meeting with about 30 policemen. Yesterday one of our players had her wallet stolen when walking in the street, from her bumbag which she had slung over her shoulder. No real big deal, she cancelled her cards, there was only about 100 Yuan ($18) in it.

We met with tournament security yesterday to report it, but never thought any more of it, of course you never expect to see it again. But we were both called into a meeting just now, all the policemen there talking all at once and very animated, the head guy actually had the wallet there and presented it back to our player.


A zillion photos taken, felt like the red carpet at the Oscars. Smiles all round, ours in amazement and theirs in pride and excitement. Apparently they are very proud of their policing and security, and in particular want to ensure that visitors go away happy and with only good memories of their stay in Chengdu. For the police to find a wallet-snatcher in a city of 10 million people in one day, it is just unbelievable. No wonder they were all so thrilled! And can you imagine even this being a remote possibility in Australia?

Chengdu is a mixed place. Our hotel typifies the mélange of influences. It's got some genuine art deco furnishings and architecture, but then has broadband and all the usual mod-cons. There's some very European features mixed in with, of course, Chinese features. There are a couple of turban-wearing Indian concierges plus the usual hordes of locals (it seems there are always many more people to do jobs here in China than we're used to back home). Anyway, back to the focus of the day.

Yesterday's postponement created many headaches - for the teams of course, but also for the local organisers - stadium, security, hotel, travel staff to name a few. To suddenly call off the teams' police escort - road closures etc - must have been a task in itself! Plus the impact on TV schedules around the globe, with satellite time being purchased etc, apparently that is a real big deal in a financial sense. But I think the most disappointing part about the match postponement was the impact on spectators.

Just a few examples. Fans had already been queuing up at the stadium yesterday to get in. A few of our team's family and friends had flights booked home today, and some have been unable to change their plans (work reasons etc), so they will not see the game tonight. There was a young Qld club team who flew over from Hangzhou yesterday to watch us who had no choice but to go back today.

If everyone had known the day before I'm sure that travel plans could have been altered more easily. But to find out less than two hours to kick-off, when everyone was already dressed and war-painted ready to go, well, it did make life more tricky for the fans. And not least, you lot back home - having to readjust your TV watching and beer swilling schedule by a day - I hope you've been able to manage it OK!


The team is in good spirits, hey, football matches have been postponed for many reasons. The cliché of the day - that's just football. They're raring to go today, and we'll still be heading to Tianjin or Wuhan for the quarters tomorrow. We're not ready to come home yet.

Best wishes everyone, and don't forget to cheer EVEN MORE LOUDLY!

Cheers, Jo