Look how many kids (well, boys...) play football in Europe's schoolyard, and during the week-end on any reasonably flat grass field. Yeah, every damn kids, even the nerdy ones would touch the balls. The parents don't book *all* the free time of their kids for extra-scholar activities, so kids got time to play football. Also, parents are not freaking out that their little boy is going to break a bone if he plays football.

So yeah, in Europe, the pool of people with years of practice of football are easy to come by, every town have those few kids who are magicians with a ball on their feet. Compare this with China. People here don't play much football, only a few university students. In villages ? Not much. In cities ? Too busy cramming useless stuffs they will forget in a couple of years. So yup, not much in the way of great player, the pool is small.

I do not understand why China cannot get a World Cup qualifying team going. Let's look at the math........................

1,300,000,000 Chinese people.

650,000,000 males (actually more than this, since there are more men in China than women because of sex selection abortion which is appalling, but that is another argument)

Men between the ages of 17 and 30, what, maybe 200 million? Let's whittle that down to 150,000,000, (150 million) which I think is too low of a figure. 150 million people is about the combined population of France and Germany.

So, with 150 million able bodied young males, 150 MILLION males, they cannot find 30 guys to field a soccer squad? That is amazing to me.

(Second point next post)

I do not understand why China cannot get a World Cup qualifying team going. Let's look at the math........................

1,300,000,000 Chinese people.

650,000,000 males (actually more than this, since there are more men in China than women because of sex selection abortion which is appalling, but that is another argument)

Men between the ages of 17 and 30, what, maybe 200 million? Let's whittle that down to 150,000,000, (150 million) which I think is too low of a figure. 150 million people is about the combined population of France and Germany.

So, with 150 million able bodied young males, 150 MILLION males, they cannot find 30 guys to field a soccer squad? That is amazing to me.

(Second point next post)

I do not understand why China cannot get a World Cup qualifying team going. Let's look at the math........................

1,300,000,000 Chinese people.

650,000,000 males (actually more than this, since there are more men in China than women because of sex selection abortion which is appalling, but that is another argument)

Men between the ages of 17 and 30, what, maybe 200 million? Let's whittle that down to 150,000,000, (150 million) which I think is too low of a figure. 150 million people is about the combined population of France and Germany.

So, with 150 million able bodied young males, 150 MILLION males, they cannot find 30 guys to field a soccer squad? That is amazing to me.

(Second point next post)

I would also like to add that there are little organized high school and college sports in China. I work in a University district and would love to have teams, but this is just not done here. I do not know why the colleges do not have a soccer and basketball team and have them play other schools. I think it would be a hit.

There is a professional soccer league in China, but I would have it more like the NFL or NBA, with a squad in most Chinese cities. 

Beijing

Tianjin

Jinan

Hangzhou

Suzhou

Fuzhou

Xiamen

Guangzhou

Kunming

Chengdu

Xian

Wuhan

Chongqing

Changsha

Yiwu (The Green Bay of the Association)

Shanghai

That is a 16 team association right there. Or better yet, have a Pan Asian conference with.....

Beijing

Shanghai

Guangzhou

Taipei

Tokyo

Osaka

(a third Japanese city, pick one)

Manila

Bangkok

Seoul

Ho Chi Minh City

Make each team 70% of a nationality, 20% Asian (one can trade players) and up to 10% non Asian foreigners. I think it would be a hit (not to overuse hit).