General Football Discussion

China's football failure..

5 replies · 1,438 views
over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
China's football failure..
Profile pic. Should you be interested. Lakhsen, on the right, lost touch with him.
Mohammed, on the left, I'm still in touch with. He's now living in Agadez, Niger. More focused on his animals now as tourism has dried up. Is active with a co-op promoting local goods, leather work and bijouterie, into Europe. 
20/5/20

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
Interesting piece from the NY Times.  (FYI - I emailed the author and pointed out that they did actually play against NZ as well.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/sports/olympics/15soccer.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin


Many Chinese sports analysts and scholars point to endemic corruption within the association as one cause of the sport�s ills. The association started the current league system in 1994, and soccer became the first sport to achieve commercial success in China, with sponsors pouring in millions of dollars.

Xu Guoqi, a professor of East Asian history at Kalamazoo College and the author of a new book on China and the Olympics, said Chinese soccer would improve only after the rule of law is established in China. He said disappointment with soccer could lead to the next �major revolution� in China. And he was not joking.

Profile pic. Should you be interested. Lakhsen, on the right, lost touch with him.
Mohammed, on the left, I'm still in touch with. He's now living in Agadez, Niger. More focused on his animals now as tourism has dried up. Is active with a co-op promoting local goods, leather work and bijouterie, into Europe. 
20/5/20

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
In addition to the corruption is the issue that there is very little grass roots football and no development ladder. So this won't change overnight. In addition to completely scrapping the current CFA and getting professional managers in place, a new regime would then need to set up development programs which would take a few years to bear fruit.
 
The Chinese government needs to distance itself, the author is not wrong in suggesting that people could demonstrate more over the football team's failures and it is a very short jump to then criticise the government. I have heard suggestions that this may happen soon after these Olympics, having achieved glory (if they can maintain the current lead) in the Gold medal tally it will be a case of job done and they will then move Sport to a market model. I am not sure though, as Sport is one key way they can drum up the nationalist sentiment that they use to justify their power now that communism is dead. Time will tell.
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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
What's grass roots football like in China?
Profile pic. Should you be interested. Lakhsen, on the right, lost touch with him.
Mohammed, on the left, I'm still in touch with. He's now living in Agadez, Niger. More focused on his animals now as tourism has dried up. Is active with a co-op promoting local goods, leather work and bijouterie, into Europe. 
20/5/20

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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
There basically isn't any, which is a large part of the problem and one example of how crap the CFA are.
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over 17 years ago · edited over 13 years ago
Yeah everyone is more interested in the Basketball as it is seen as a cleaner sport to play and have better "court time" show offs with the chinese girls and boy
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