While FIFA's decision to expand the World Cup into a 48-team format from 2026 is expected to raise the chances of China to qualify for the tournament, disappointed Chinese fans continued to ridicule their underachieving national team on Wednesday.
FIFA voted Tuesday to expand the -soccer world championship from 32 teams to 48, a decision which is -expected to double the guaranteed spots for Asia in the World Cup finals from four to eight, with the ninth-placed qualifier facing a playoff.
Currently languishing at 82nd in the FIFA world rankings, China are the eighth-placed team under Asian Football Confederation, their best record in the last five years.
Many netizens joked that the World Cup expansion is like China's elite Tsinghua University expanding enrollment while the Chinese national team is like a poor student finding it hard to reach the high-level standard.
"FIFA has done everything to help China qualify for a World Cup," a -netizen using the name of Yang Yibo said. "It would be more humiliating if the team cannot qualify."
China qualified for a 32-team World Cup only once in 2002, when neighbors Japan and South Korea were the hosts. But they failed to win a match or score a goal in the finals.
A second-string China team's 2-0 -defeat to third-string Iceland on Tuesday also cooled down China's future hopes, even though the China team were -playing under the guidance of Italian World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi.
The silver-haired Italian is leading China's campaign for the 2018 World Cup after taking over from Gao Hongbo in October 2016. The team are yet to score a goal since September.
"The second-child policy doesn't mean I can have a wife," another netizen quipped, making a reference to China's family planning policy change in 2015.
Soccer-loving President Xi Jinping has expressed his vision of hosting a World Cup and turning China into one of the soccer superpowers in the future.
"Let's be realistic! Only when China is hosting the World Cup can we qualify for it again," a Weibo user said, showing his disappointment with the national team.
The World Cup host country will qualify for the finals automatically.
In contrast to the national team's underperformance, the world's most populous country also witnessed cash-rich domestic leagues purchase foreign players at astronomical prices, with the Chinese Super League clubs breaking the Asian transfer record five times in less than a year.
Following the steps set by cash-splashing Guangzhou Evergrande, who won continental club titles twice in 2013 and 2015, Shanghai SIPG last month paid 60 million euros for Chelsea's -Oscar, smashing the previous Asian transfer record set by themselves in a Hulk deal half a year ago.
