When will Chinese football offer us some hope?

This weekend, Chinese football suffered yet another embarrassing defeat, and the state of Chinese football has become a national concern. On the evening of June 15, the Chinese national football team played a warm-up game with Thailand in Hefei, Anhui Province. China has lost 1-5 to Thailand, achieving a single result China's biggest-ever loss to Thailand, and China's biggest-ever home defeat.

There can be no question that this was a milestone. The Chinese national team sits 95th in the international rankings, while Thailand languishes in 142nd place. Moreover, the Thai team were not even full internationalists, with most of them being young Olympic players. Prior to this match, the Chinese team has already lost two matches against Uzbekistan and the Netherlands. They were hoping to secure a victory against Thailand because it is a weaker team; such hopes were thoroughly dashed.

We must put aside any sense of disappointment, anger or desperation, and ask ourselves questions to which there is a growing need for answers. The national team has suffered three consecutive defeats in warm-up matches. Fans will understand the results against Uzbekistan and the Netherlands, but when we lose to a team as weak as Thailand, we have to ask: "What is wrong with Chinese football? Where do we go from here?"

When people discuss about our football, one of the first reactions tends to be complaints about the coach. It appears that neither our own coaches nor a foreign coach are up to the job. But all those foreign coaches we have had, from Schlappner to Camacho - are they all incompetents? The truth is that the coach cannot change anything if the players do not come up to scratch.

Some have suggested that Camacho - a veteran with experience of both the Spanish national team and Real Madrid - has no proper strategy; that his pursuit of his goals is haphazard. Since he took over as the head coach of the national football team, its ranking has fallen relentlessly, from the 60s to below 90th place. These three new defeats will do nothing to alter that trend. More and more people are now calling for Camacho's head - he must take responsibility of all three setbacks. But Camacho should not be alone in taking the blame for shortcomings of China's national football team.