The recently concluded Asian Cup in Qatar left a variety of hot topics, including host country Qatar’s second successive victory and the stunning performance of dark horse Jordan. In this tournament, China managed to avoid traditional Asian strong teams such as Japan, Iran, and Korea and was placed in Group A with Qatar, which was considered the weakest among the 1-pot countries, Lebanon, which was considered weak until age in the Middle East, and Tajikistan, who were participating in the Asian Cup for the first time Easy progress to the round of 16 was expected.
However, the Chinese national team, who had shown signs of unease before the tournament by losing friendlies against Oman and Hong Kong, were eliminated in the group stage with 2 draws, 1 loss and no goals in the rounds final, and coach Jankovic, who was in charge of the national team, was also sacked immediately after the tournament.
China advanced to the finals of the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup for the first time in its history and finished second in the 2004 Asian Cup held in China, raising expectations that it could emerge as a new dark horse in Asia . Also, at the club level, Guangzhou Henda won the Asian Champions League in 2013 and 2015, showing the potential for Chinese football to develop.
But as of 2024, Chinese football is far from the bright future the country dreamed of in the mid-2010s. Men’s and women’s national teams and club level seem to be faltering. Despite massive investment in the mid-2010s, China is struggling in the second round of Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers, and has fallen from first to third in the eastern division of the Confederation of Football’s AFC club rankings. -foot of Asia. What happened to Chinese football in the last 10 years?
▲ Chinese national team players look on the stands after losing 1-0 to Qatar in the group stage of the AFC Asian Cup football tournament held in Doha, Qatar, on January 23 (local time). ⓒXinhua News Agency = Yonhap News
The decline of Chinese professional football
Just as Korea was able to participate in the 1986 World Cup after launching a professional football league under the name ‘Super League’ in 1983, for a country’s national team to be successfully implemented, a football league domestic professional where there are excellent domestic players. being able to develop is necessary, very important.
China was also stimulated by the launch of Japan’s J-League and formal professional football competitions began in 1994 through the lower level A-League and B-League. Subsequently, as the popularity of professional football increased and more teams were established, the number of teams participating in the first division was reduced from 16 to 12 in 2004 to maintain a performance worthy of the first division, and the Chinese Super League (CSL) was launching.
In 2008, the number of participating teams was again increased to 16 and the CSL was successfully implemented. Entering the 2010s, the CSL began to grow rapidly, starting with Guangzhou ‘Hengda’ of the Hengda Group, real estate construction company.
Guangzhou Hengda recruited not only Chinese national team players such as Zhang Linfeng and Peng Xiaoting, but also famous foreign players such as Kim Young-kwon, Dario Conca, and Paulinho, while their opponent Shanghai Shenhua also recruited Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, and Carlos Tevez from Asia We entered a competition to recruit players who were not available before.
In particular, after Guangzhou Henda won its second Asian Champions League in 2015 with aggressive investment, other big companies also began to actively recruit, and CSL (136.25 million euros) was the biggest player in the English Premier League (England’s Premier League). in the winter transfer market season 2015-16. It also became the league with the highest transfer fee, surpassing 116 million euros.
The problem is that the Chinese Premier League did not have enough recognition and reputation to sell broadcasting rights abroad like European leagues where foreign stars play, and because of this, the transfer fees spent on recruiting players did not lead to a dramatic increase in revenue .
Guangzhou Hengda, famous for its star team, worsened its financial situation to the point where it suffered a deficit of 182.3 billion won in 2017 and 358.8 billion won in 2019. In addition, even before COVID-19, companies Chinese, including Hengda Group, especially construction companies, experiencing a real estate recession, and the football teams they operated also had to go through ups and downs such as liquidation, acquisition, and re-. foundation.
A clear example is Jiangsu Suning, which won the CSL in 2020 and was dissolved the very next year due to difficulties faced by its parent company, Suning Group. In addition to China’s ‘Zero Corona’ policy, Chinese clubs have continued to perform poorly in the Asian Champions League in the 2020s.
Lack of international experience among Chinese players
The competition between CSL clubs to recruit players has also significantly increased the price of domestic players. Taking Zhang Chengdong as an example, he recorded a transfer fee of 150 million yuan (about 27.7 billion won) when he transferred from Beijing Guoan to Hebei Huaxiaxingfu in 2017. Not only the transfer fee but also the annual salary has risen significant, and in 2019, the annual salary of a Chinese professional football player was about $1.2 million, five times more than Japan and ten times more than Korea.
As they receive relatively high salaries compared to their performance or skills in international competitions, the number of players who gain international experience by playing in foreign leagues has become extremely small. In the past, there were Chinese players playing in the K-League such as Feng Xiaoting (Daegu, Jeonbuk), Li Weifeng (Suwon), and Li Chunyu (Gangwon), but the only Chinese player playing in the Korean first division was Hwang Bo-won (Jeonbuk, 2011). -12) Finally it disappeared.
In the case of Chinese national team striker Wu Lei, he received an annual salary of about 2.9 billion won in CSL, but when the annual salary cap was set for domestic players, he received half of the annual salary and transferred to Espanyol in Spain. National team players only play in China. The atmosphere was formed naturally.
In addition, because the skill gap between foreign players recruited by CSL and domestic players is large, the tactics of CSL teams have also evolved to somehow try to pass the ball to the foreign attackers playing up front. Because of this, although foreign giants were active in the CSL, the tactics became simpler and an environment was created where it was difficult for domestic strikers to grow as they were pushed out by foreign strikers.
To overcome this, foreign players who had been active in China for a long time were naturalized and selected as members of the Chinese national team, however, starting in the late 2010s, when major clubs were disbanded or unable to pay salaries due to financial reasons. difficulties, they left China and regained their former nationality. It showed that a short-term approach has its limitations.
Failure to discover young talent
As they were pushed out by foreign players who brought high transfer fees and national team players who settled in the CSL with high salaries, young Chinese prospects had fewer opportunities to play. In addition, since the mid-2010s, the competition between clubs to recruit players by paying transfer fees has intensified, and the atmosphere of securing players who are already proven and performing straight away in the CSL has become stronger. , making most clubs less able to develop young players who need long-term investment and management.
This becomes clearer when comparing the average age of the teams participating in this Asian Cup. Japan, said to have completed a new generational change, was one of the youngest teams with an average age of 26.2 years, and Korea had young players also with an average age of 28.02 years It was evaluated that the harmony of experienced players was well achieved.
On the other hand, the Chinese team had an average age of 29.17 years, making it the third oldest team among the participating countries, following Lebanon (29.76) and Iran (29.52). To overcome this, the Chinese team also instituted a mandatory appearance rule for players under the age of 23, similar to the K-League, but it causes confusion as it does not match the league’s atmosphere of wanting secure highly paid players. and transfer fees and produce results in a short period of time.
The underlying problem is state-led football policy
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ‘football dream’ is behind the large-scale investment in Chinese football that has been concentrated since the mid-2010s. Even before coming to power, President Xi Jinping emphasized the ‘Chinese Dream’ of achieving the ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’, and Chinese football has also grown to a global level through long-term investment and development, standing shoulder to shoulder. other football powerhouses and give pride to the Chinese people I ordered something to plant.
Since modern football and nationalism are closely related, it is not surprising or negative that the Xi Jinping administration, which follows nationalistic policies, also invests and pays attention to football. However, looking at the journey Chinese football has taken over the past 10 years, one can’t help but wonder if these investments are being made in a healthy way.
In particular, since the Chinese government announced the ‘Comprehensive Plan for the Reform of Chinese Football’ in 2015, which appeared to reflect the intentions of President Xi Jinping, major Chinese companies have been recruiting players unreasonable.In 2016, when coach Marcello Lippi was appointed to the Chinese national team, not only the Chinese Football Association Given that Guangzhou Hengda also jointly bears the annual salary, it can be seen that the investment of Chinese companies is CSL is ultimately an attempt to improve relations with the Chinese government.
China has a large number of passionate football fans and the interest and will of not only the private sector but also the government is very high, so if constant investment is made in the Chinese football market, I believe there is potential for the team do that. join the ranks of East Asia’s powerhouse teams in the future. However, in order to achieve this, we must move away from investments aimed at short-term results and promotional effects and create an environment where China’s young talents can fully blossom.
Nevertheless, some Chinese media still believe that if a great foreign player takes over as the coach of the national team, all the problems of Chinese football will be solved. On the 20th, a Chinese media outlet recommended former coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who was fired in Korea, as China’s next coach. If we want to have the long-term development of Chinese football, we should pay more attention to the structural problems of the Chinese national team and CSL, rather than focusing only on the reputation of famous foreign football players.
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