China Soccer Blues

By China Watcher

China was beaten by Oman last night 3-1 in an Olympic Soccer Qualifying match which, once again, put the Chinese population to shame. A nation with the largest population of 1.3 billion in the world at a strong economic position cannot even form a 'decent" outfit to represent the country. By the way, Oman has a small population of only 5 million.

What is really wrong with Chinese soccer? Corruption, an old issue?

I would probably suggest a full revamp of the whole top down Chinese Soccer Federation and appoint new corporates to run it. The Chinese need to learn from the Koreans and the Japanese how they have revitalized their soccer fortunes in the heydays of the 80s to what it is today. Even Chinese leading soccer clubs are not doing well in the Asian Champions league.

There is really something very wrong in the youth development programs. The younger players are not coming up especially Chinese appearance in the Asian U15, Youth qualification for the U-17 are clearly very disappointing. The Olympics features U-23 players which will provide the core of its world cup squad in the near future and this does not measure up well for Chinese soccer.

I am questioning whether physically or maybe there is an attribute or quality in the DNA of a Chinese which is not made up to play soccer or football in other parts of the world.

Then again, the Koreans and Japanese are from the same strain of DNA genetics. Why?

This is clearly a big wake-up call to the Chinese sports authorities that there is clearly a big problem and something needs to be drastically done to appease the many soccer fans in China.