blog » FC China - Why The People’s Republic Is Football-less

FC China - Why The People’s Republic is Football-less

China is a major power factor in any Olympic Game. Since 1992 they have been a permanent resident of the top 5 for medal winning nations in the games. On top of that China is the world’s most populated nation. Counting 1.3 billion people and with allegedly the world’s largest football fan base and with a well-known affinity for sport in general, I find it very had to grasp why they don’t dominate the world’s most popular game.

30 million people watch the English Premier League every weekend while 180 million watched last year's CSL on television. CNN.

F.C. China - Why The People's Republic is Fotball-less

State Intervention

As noted by Susan Brownell, a professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, China subsidize athletes from a very early age which accounts for many of the successes in the Olympics. However, in sports like football where individual performance counts less than overall team performance the Chinese system still lacks behind. “China’s athletic system does not work well for sports in which stars emerge slowly from a wide participation base”, Susan Brownell told The New York Times.

Even though FIFA clearly states, that national football associations must be independent from government intervention, FIFA still haven’t found an appropriate stance to deal with the fact that China doesn’t meet the criteria. Officially there is only one organization in China i.e. The Communist Party. And since that’s not about to change, the Chinese state and football will be interlocked like Peking and duck for a long time to come.

Match Fixing

Match fixing in Chinese football is well documented by journalists like Declan Hill who wrote the book “The Fix” in 2008. A major concern put forward in Hill’s book is how apparent the fixing takes places and how it pretty much has ruined the Chinese league and Asian football in general. Even last year a corruption scandal emerged when it came to the public’s attention that Chinese top players bribed them selves into the national team.

Rates were even put into a system

£10,000 to get selected for the national squad. To get a run out as a sub costs £20,000, according to CNN.

Arrests have been made in cases of match fixing but according to Declan Hill not to much emphasis should be given to the police actions. Fixing is still very much part of football in China.

Soccer As the Yard Stick

F.C. China - Why The People's Republic is Fotball-less

Very often explanations on why China is doing poorly on domestic and international football stages incorporate the element of culture. As opposed to European culture where football emerged out of the working classes, football in China never got a chance to naturally develop into the mainstream. In other words football culture never became a natural part of the sporting environment.

Xu Guoqi author and professor wrote in 2008 on the subject of Chinese hosting of the Olympics for the Washington Post:

For hundreds of millions of Chinese, our widely anticipated bonanza of medals will mean very little. The real metric by which China judges itself (…) is soccer. And when it comes to our beloved sport, China is not just the sick man of Asia. It's the sick man of the world.

Xu Guoqi's statement pose an interesting dilemma. On the one side China does very little to deal with the problems preventing football developing into a credible game. On the other hand the question is if it's at all possible to impose a sport to a public, with a fan base but no one to cheer for.