Opinion / Liu Shinan
Chinese football fans face long wait for glory
By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-12 06:11
China has the most dedicated football fans in the world, though one of
the most disappointing teams.
I don't know how many fans in football powers such as Italy, Brazil and
Germany sat up at midnight to watch games in 2002 because of the time
difference when the global gala was staged in the Republic of Korea and
Japan.
But I dare say that the Chinese disciples of the "world's number one
sport" who burned the midnight oil to watch matches taking place halfway
across the world far outnumbered their Western peers.
During the past month, no less than 100 million Chinese men (and a
growing number of women) watched the live TV broadcasts of the 18th World
Cup finals in the wee hours every day, either in boisterous bars or at
home with the volume turned down low. And the number of sports
journalists sent by Chinese media to Germany to cover the event surprised
their colleagues from the 32 countries whose national teams were actually
competing in the tournament. Nearly 500 Chinese reporters descended on
Germany even though the tournament's organizers assigned only 69 passes
to Chinese media.
"How come you Chinese are here to compete with us," asked a German
journalist to a Chinese TV cameraman. I would rather believe that the
German was eulogizing his Chinese colleague's professional dedication
rather than assume that he was jeering at my compatriot for "poking his
nose into other people's business."
Though I acknowledge the globalized belief that "football has no national
boundaries," I still find ironic the fact that so many Chinese men
demonstrated a near hysterical zeal for the World Cup while so few watch
league games in China.
Chinese people's fascination with the World Cup started in 1982 when the
Chinese national team scored a number of exciting victories in the
qualifying stage to almost qualify, but missed out due to the dubious
result of a New Zealand-Saudi Arabia game. Since then, China has failed
to reach the finals of every subsequent World Cup, except in 2002, which
was largely thanks to an easier passage created by the host nations'
automatic qualification. The Chinese team, however, lost all three
matches in the group stage without scoring a single goal.
To improve its standard of football, China began market-oriented reforms
of the sport's structure in the early 1990s but the Chinese footballers'
performance in the world arena has become worse and worse.
China is now the world's fourth largest economy and it is also a major
sports power, as seen in its second place in the medals table at the
Athens Olympic Games in 2004. It is bewildering why its football has
regressed rather than progressed in the past two decades. Fans ask
desperately: "Why is it so difficult for 1.3 billion Chinese to produce
11 outstanding football players?"
Nobody can give an authoritative answer to the question. And those in
authoritative positions have not tried, and are maybe unwilling to
answer. Without in-depth studies, I dare not try to make a serious
comment, either. But I think two things are clear. First, the
market-oriented reform of the professional football structure has been a
failure. It is undeniable that the industry is now riddled with
corruption, bribery and "bent" refereeing. Football players are more
interested in cash than the match.
Second, football chiefs have never been serious in implementing the
strategy of training and fostering talented players from their childhood.
Football clubs put all their efforts on earning profits. Officials of the
supervising authorities engage themselves in short-term endeavours,
striving for instant success during their tenure in office. Nobody really
cares about the training of young players.
Developing a top-class footballer requires efforts from an early stage.
Speaking frankly, there seems little potential with the current
generation of Chinese professional football players.
Start doing a solid job to train promising youngsters and work
persistently with them for another 10 or so years, then China will see a
batch of football talents emerge that can perform on the highest stage
the World Cup. So, be patient.
Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 07/12/2006 page4)
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