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Football, starting from kids

The chief of Chinese Football Association (CFA), Cai Zhenhua, laid out a long-term plan for China’s national football team. The plan was drawn up at the CFA’s national congress over the 16-18th of December in Kunming. Over the next five years, the team should strive to qualify ofr the World Cup, reach the 16th round and also become one of the top 30 best national teams. However the quite ordinary conference has attracted a great amount of nationwide attention and sparked heated debates on whether the goal is ambitious enough for the national team, given that it is now ranked 84th in the world. The argument boils down to the state of China’s national team – or more specifically the state of the men’s team. A quick reminder of the team’s history can explain everything. Since its first attempt in 1957, China national team has had 10 World Cup-qualifying campaigns but only succeeded once in 2002. Sadly, the then national squad failed to score any goal and lost all three games. The national team lost to Thailand 2-0 and failed to make it to the last eight at the Asian Games last year. Hong Kong and China reached a tie in a qualifying game last month for World Cup 2018 as both sides were unable to score a goal. The national team […]

Uncategorized Dec 20, 2015

How Has FIFA Graft Affected China’s Football Dream?

Tremendous controversy has swept through the international sports community as nine FIFA officials and four executives of sports management companies were arrested in late May 2015 on the suspicion of receiving bribes, racketeering and wire fraud. Federation International Football Association (FIFA) is the top governing body that organizes major tournaments of the world’s most popular sport. To much surprise, the FIFA President Sepp Blatter was not among those accused despite the severe doubts of his innocence. Although he announced resignation from the presidency in early June, a source close to Blatter told the BBC he might go back on his promise. Furthermore, Russia, Qatar and South Afri­ca have all been subjected to investigations conducted by the Swiss and U.S. authorities. There is speculation that the first two could even face disqualification from respectively hosting the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments. In the meanwhile, South Africa is now being accused of having secured its role as host to the 2010 World Cup by issuing a $10m bribe to FIFA. In contrast, China seemingly stands a better chance in furthering its own football development. In particular, the FIFA scandal is conducive to China’s pursuit of a football revival in at least two respects. Firstly, the revelations of FIFA’s corruption scandal could also serve as a warning to China, stressing the importance […]

Uncategorized Jul 13, 2015