The Football Superpower?

[Moon]

China has unveiled a strategy to become a "world football superpower" by 2050, with plans to get 50 million
children and adults playing the game by 2020.

Other targets include having at least 20,000 football training centers and 70,000 pitches in place by 2020.

While China excels at the Olympics and Paralympics, it has only ever qualified for one football World Cup, in 2002.

President Xi Jinping is a football enthusiast and previously said he wants China to win the World Cup in 15 years.

The plan was published by the Chinese Football Association (in Chinese) on Monday.

It sets out short, medium and long-term targets, including ensuring there is one football pitch for every 10,000 people by 2030.

The men's football team should become one of the best in Asia, while the female football team should be ranked as a world-class team, by 2030, the plan said.

By 2050, the report added, China should be "a first-class football superpower" that "contributes to the international football world".

China's men's team currently sits 81st in the Fifa world rankings, out of 204 nations, below far smaller nations such as Haiti, Panama and Benin.

The football league has been hit by corruption in recent years, with 33 players and officials banned in 2013 for match-fixing, although efforts have been made to clean up the sport.

 

[Gufi]

While China excels at the Olympics and Paralympics, it has only ever qualified for one football World Cup, in 2002.

Individual sports versus contact sports.
The Chinese league is already quite large, and most universities and colleges have football fields and basketball courts in them.

 

[Dalit]

Trust me. They are going to get there. Football is my passion and I've played at the Ajax youth academy. I've played with some bright Chinese talent and they are not there yet, but their passion will get them there. Their talent is getting better and their domestic league as well.

 

[STEVEN囧]

Chinese football association is just an idiotic organization and just good at bribe and bureaucracy.
China has a prosperous football market but it seems that those players is lacking engery on playing well and paying more
attention to paycheck,vlla,limo and beauty..
We don't trust our male players and I would rather think our female players could win the top of women's world cup.(The best score is at the second place of the women's world cup in 1999)

Trust me. They are going to get there. Football is my passion and I've played at the Ajax youth academy. I've played with some bright Chinese talent and they are not there yet, but their passion will get them there. Their talent is getting better and their domestic league as well.

But the real talented Chinese players is ruined by the CHINESE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION.....The Chinese national team players and coaches is controlled by the organization.Chinese league isn't shore of money but an eligible superior.Now the highest superior of " State General Administration Of Sports" is a Pingpang player(table tennis player).What we could get from him in terms of football...?

 

[Dalit]

Chinese football association is just an idiotic organization and just good at bribe and bureaucracy.
China has a prosperous football market but it seems that those players is lacking engery on playing well and paying more
attention to paycheck,vlla,limo and beauty..
We don't trust our male players and I would rather think our female players could win the top of women's world cup.(The best score is at the second place of the women's world cup in 1999)



But the real talented Chinese players is ruined by the CHINESE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION.....The Chinese national team players and coaches is controlled by the organization.Chinese league isn't shore of money but an eligible superior.Now the highest superior of " State General Administration Of Sports" is a Pingpang player(table tennis player).What we could get from him in terms of football...?

Organizational issues will have to be sorted out by all means. China is too big to fail in football. I've heard about the rampant corruption and betting scandals. That needs to be sorted out.

 

[Stannis Baratheon]

Chinese football association is just an idiotic organization and just good at bribe and bureaucracy.
China has a prosperous football market but it seems that those players is lacking engery on playing well and paying more
attention to paycheck,vlla,limo and beauty..
We don't trust our male players and I would rather think our female players could win the top of women's world cup.(The best score is at the second place of the women's world cup in 1999)



But the real talented Chinese players is ruined by the CHINESE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION.....The Chinese national team players and coaches is controlled by the organization.Chinese league isn't shore of money but an eligible superior.Now the highest superior of " State General Administration Of Sports" is a Pingpang player(table tennis player).What we could get from him in terms of football...?

Everything needs time. But the recent World Cup qualifiers were quite promising for China. It has come a long way from being a highly corrupt organization to forming some of AFC's most dominant teams right now and one of them is Guangzhou Evergrande who have clearly turned a corner.

Football did take a backward turn in China but Xi clearly wants it to be better than what it was before. In fact, a lot of Asian teams turned awful in football (we are one of them) and many are just becoming worse.

I do like the strategy of sending young Chinese players to lower divisions of European football to get experience and learn the way they play, thus improving their technical aspects. It also helps when they return they are then integrated into the Chinese League, thus improving domestic standards. It's an excellent plan to get a good side within the next 5-10 years.

There wouldn't be much improvement within the next five years but in 10-15 years China can surely produce a top team at the World Cup. Maybe not as good as Argentina, Brazil or some other European teams like Germany, France and Spain but it can be good enough like Ivory Coast, Portugal or even England (yeah, they suck).

 

[Deliorman]

Sports like Soccer, Basketball are examples that not every thing is about money and a lot of investments. CBA for example is probably the richest league in the world after the NBA and hosts numerous washed out Americans with big contracts who play there but yet China is not a basketball powerhouse. It wasn't even with Yao Ming in it. Of course money have a big role and help a lot but traditions and culture play bigger role in developing sport on a great level. For example countries like those in ex- Yugoslavia or like some in Latin America are still pretty strong in those sports even without so much financial power as the Chinese. They have the traditions, they have the culture and their small population has a lot of people with the right physical tools to succeed in those sports.

I don't really think Europeans can be better than the Chinese in table tennis even considering most people around have played it and the fact that you can find such tables in every school gym.