EXPECTATION: Chinese football fans hold a banner to express their hopes for the future of the sport in the country during a quarter-final game at the World Cup on July 5, 2014, in Brazil (XINHUA)
An ambitious plan is unveiled to revamp the sport of football in China
With China seeing its economy take off and its national strength grow, it is now turning its sights to something else close to its people's hearts—football.
On March 16, the State Council, China's cabinet, issued an ambitious reform plan aiming to overhaul the country's football management system in the hopes that the middle kingdom can finally achieve World Cup recognition.
The 50-point plan passed in late February by China's leading group of central reform, chaired by President Xi Jinping, outlines a reform that will involve almost every aspect of the sport, including the management, clubs, leagues, national teams and construction of playing fields.
It is widely seen that the plan showcases the Central Government's determination to meet the need to popularize the sport across the country and finally improve the level of its national teams.
"Revitalizing football is a must for building China into a sports powerhouse and also an earnest desire of the nation's many fans," said the plan, named the Overall Plan of Chinese Football Reform and Development.
Goals are set in the plan that include a mid-term goal of returning the women's team to their previous status as some of the best in the world—they previously won the AFC's Women's Asian Cup seven tournaments in a row from 1986 to 1999, as well as placing second in the 1999 woman's World Cup. The more ambitious long-term goals are for the men's team to enjoy the same status as well as making a bid to host the World Cup.
Zhang Lu, a veteran football commentator based in Beijing, believes that the reform plan provides the foundations for healthy development of football in China.
"The plan summarizes the developing path of football in China in the past 20 years and outlines a direction for the sport in the future. It shows a true understanding of the sport by the central authorities," Zhang said.
Wang Dazhao, another Beijing-based sports commentator, said that the importance of football development transcends the playing fields and may serve as the impetus for other social and economic reforms in China.
"Football, as the world's most popular sport, can drive economic growth and encourage social participation in China. Its development will also boost the country's cultural soft power," Wang said.
Breaking the bind
Football was chosen by the country to be its ice-breaking professional sport in 1994. However, Chinese football has shown little noticeable improvement over the two decades since.
Measures that have proven effective in other parts of the world have been ineffective in China. In particular, a series of scandals like match fixing and gambling has given Chinese football a bad name among fans.
One number can be used to summarize the woeful story of the sport of football in China: 83. This number is the current global ranking for the country's national men's team by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body.
The Chinese men's team has qualified only for the FIFA World Cup finals once, back in 2002, when the team was eliminated at the group stage without scoring a single goal.
Since then, the Chinese team has continued to fare poorly despite efforts to bring in world-class coaches like Bobby Houghton and ex-Real Madrid manager Jose Antonio Camacho.
