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Q: Ask the Q; Why aren't China in the World Cup? What's the reaction?
I have asked this question quite often and the answers are always the same. Face downcast, shoulders hunched and a murmured "China has difficulty with soccer/football", or words to that effect.
Anyone else been down this road?
And anyway, why aren't they?
The potential is there given the size of the population. All they need is honest backing with honest money. Not that other nations are immune from corruption. (Take the recent match-fixing scandals in Euro footy, for example.)
And they need a good farm system like they have in Europe or in the U.S. for other sports. Spot the star potential at an early age and grow 'em on the farm. (That's what Barcelona did with Messi, again for example.)
Another explanation may be that kids aren't groomed to become sports stars because the work load at school and all the exam prep they do is overwhelming. For kids, sport becomes just a game to release the pressure of too much school work.
On the other hand, if China can produce swimmers, divers and gymnasts on farms starting at a very young age, why can't they do that with football or other team sports?
Red_Fox:
Postscript: Once the Chinese learn how the rest of the world does it, they'll field a World Cup side. How difficult can it be to farm and train 30+ kids out of 1.4 billion people and piece together a supersquad?
bayuvar139:
Absolutely agree with you! China could be force to be reckoned with.
mArtiAn:
I think you're missing one rather glaring factor: most Chinese are about 9 inches shorter (nope, not a unit reference) than their western competition. I mean, Yao Ming made it to the big leagues in basketball but however skilled they may be, their chances on the whole are severely hampered by their averages in height. That reduces your billion plus estimation considerably.
china simply does not have the land for football fields at every school. some kids never play the sport for an entire time in school.
if you cant play, you cant find the talent and make it better.
some middle schools in jinan only have basketball, nothing else, im sure china could win every year if they could find the talent, but basically overcrowding eliminates the possibility ever happening.
the other thing that makes my blood boil is the guys get to play real sports while the girls just get to run. how many female athletes are missing from the world stage because they are not even allowed a chance to even play any sport in china.
one of the girls at my high school went to canada and made the swim team and the girls hockey team in grade 12, sadly this would be a fairy tale in china.
China generally fails at team sports.
ambivalentmace:
you may be on to something there, the culture of a selfish one child policy, and people walking, driving and riding vehicles as if they are the only one around in a country of over a billion.
the other day at the mcdonalds some folks tried to cut in the line and i said in chinese, im sorry, are you an emporer that gets to cut the line, if your an emporer can i have your autograph, the rest of the line was astonished at the chinese and more astonished at the sarcasm. the line cutter i guess lost face and left the restaurant, hope he is waiting outside with a knife to stab me so i have an excuse to beat the hell out of him, it was a BCD already.
Red_Fox:
It still doesn't make sense. I mean, it does and ambi's theory is very plausible, but I still can't get my head around the lack of team sport support in China, a country that espouses "harmony" and "loyalty" throughout all social strata. Anyway, empty words, perhaps.
But looking at the Olympic Games, for example, and using that event as a possible benchmark, China has done pretty well in some team sports: rather consistently in volleyball, both indoor and beach, field hockey (women's), and the women's soccer team medalled in I forgot which Olympics. Doesn't matter.
There is a fan base, I'm fairly certain, for full-on, world-class professional football. But who is willing to develop the sport at that level? Apparently they tried it once and cocked it up. A pity.
I remember one of my Chinese colleagues telling me that parents would be not so keen in letting their kids playing soccer/football. The kids might hurt themselves, and think of all this time spent playing, that could have been homework time ! Because this gaokao won't pass itself...
In contrast, in Africa, Europe, South America, boys play soccer/football during every single pause, the week-ends, etc at an early age. Coming back with scratches is considered the norm. Actually, a boy coming back home with a clean pant and without a scratch for the whole year would ring an alarm in parent's mind 
In France, soccer is a social thing, some kind of communion ^^ So there's a large pool of people who grew up bathed in soccer and playing it for real. A bit like New-Zealand, where rugby is a religion and they are dipped into it at early age : you get the All-Blacks.
It's corrupt to the core. My wife's cousin was quite the player but he didn't have the money to pay his way onto the provincial youth side. Or so I am told. Anyway here's a link you might find interesting. http://www.economist.com/node/21541716
wagon:
Glad you liked it. I thought it was interesting, hence, I had it bookmarked.
I knew a kid who was a crackin' player and was only wanting to go and study abroad because he thought it would help his chances of getting into a decent team abroad.
the lack of a good national team is not due to lack of interest in playing the game: many of the students i teach here are on the Uni. team and play against other Uni's. But the lack of opportunity for skilled players to develop from an early age.
individually they are too selfish to play the team game
royceH:
Intrinsically, yes, you are right.
But what gets me is the fact that Chinese youth is practically obsessed with soccer. The joint is screaming out for some cohesion and they're completely embarrassed that Sth Korea, Japan and even Nth Korea (incredibly!) qualify for the World Cup...and China doesn't.
As for the excuse they don't have the space to fit in suitable facilities....that's BS.
dom87:
they just hate that japan is better at something, no matter if they are interested in it.
whaaaaat the japanese are whiter than us, kill them all
