The Fort Worth Press - After Beijing Winter Olympics, China eyes World Cup goal

USD -
AED 3.673055
AFN 71.726294
ALL 90.628228
AMD 391.112005
ANG 1.790208
AOA 915.999706
ARS 1075.353385
AUD 1.65233
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.702577
BAM 1.78767
BBD 2.022522
BDT 121.703761
BGN 1.784998
BHD 0.376761
BIF 2976.850879
BMD 1
BND 1.34937
BOB 6.936612
BRL 5.912036
BSD 1.001709
BTN 85.993456
BWP 14.089064
BYN 3.278185
BYR 19600
BZD 2.012102
CAD 1.419155
CDF 2871.000027
CHF 0.859565
CLF 0.025825
CLP 991.009726
CNY 7.308601
CNH 7.359315
COP 4392.25
CRC 508.269316
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 100.78607
CZK 23.045698
DJF 178.377193
DKK 6.83366
DOP 62.99702
DZD 133.831999
EGP 51.349897
ERN 15
ETB 132.597278
EUR 0.915475
FJD 2.329756
FKP 0.785678
GBP 0.78522
GEL 2.75013
GGP 0.785678
GHS 15.525941
GIP 0.785678
GMD 71.501759
GNF 8668.628777
GTQ 7.731751
GYD 210.184271
HKD 7.769015
HNL 25.629096
HRK 6.898101
HTG 131.05585
HUF 373.441497
IDR 16936.7
ILS 3.767902
IMP 0.785678
INR 86.185799
IQD 1312.212645
IRR 42099.999675
ISK 132.639977
JEP 0.785678
JMD 157.974114
JOD 0.708903
JPY 147.510504
KES 129.450294
KGS 86.832703
KHR 4008.444603
KMF 450.501791
KPW 899.976479
KRW 1479.865051
KWD 0.30787
KYD 0.834803
KZT 525.122711
LAK 21690.447246
LBP 90299.007258
LKR 298.358348
LRD 200.336362
LSL 19.404038
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 5.555606
MAD 9.549655
MDL 17.770242
MGA 4675.331798
MKD 56.233579
MMK 2099.38476
MNT 3509.76811
MOP 8.015777
MRU 39.860083
MUR 45.102157
MVR 15.398176
MWK 1736.956601
MXN 20.617598
MYR 4.488504
MZN 63.910098
NAD 19.404216
NGN 1549.920082
NIO 36.85781
NOK 10.918425
NPR 137.593119
NZD 1.78825
OMR 0.384972
PAB 1.001691
PEN 3.686611
PGK 4.07488
PHP 57.314034
PKR 280.854273
PLN 3.931259
PYG 8018.975714
QAR 3.651387
RON 4.556199
RSD 107.234978
RUB 85.524576
RWF 1412.379803
SAR 3.753762
SBD 8.316332
SCR 14.348286
SDG 600.499838
SEK 10.027605
SGD 1.35143
SHP 0.785843
SLE 22.750328
SLL 20969.501083
SOS 572.465358
SRD 36.663968
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.764842
SYP 13001.558046
SZL 19.398006
THB 34.815499
TJS 10.883315
TMT 3.5
TND 3.072894
TOP 2.342103
TRY 38.011701
TTD 6.788724
TWD 33.023045
TZS 2689.999685
UAH 41.104804
UGX 3722.898614
UYU 42.190313
UZS 12969.361266
VES 73.26602
VND 25990
VUV 125.059451
WST 2.843211
XAF 599.573142
XAG 0.033129
XAU 0.000333
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.745677
XOF 599.578622
XPF 109.008811
YER 245.649918
ZAR 19.49135
ZMK 9001.203214
ZMW 28.022998
ZWL 321.999592
  • RIO

    -0.1100

    54.56

    -0.2%

  • CMSC

    -0.1200

    22.17

    -0.54%

  • CMSD

    -0.3500

    22.48

    -1.56%

  • SCS

    -0.3800

    10.2

    -3.73%

  • BCC

    -3.5500

    91.89

    -3.86%

  • JRI

    -0.7000

    11.26

    -6.22%

  • BTI

    -0.4300

    39.43

    -1.09%

  • RBGPF

    60.2700

    60.27

    +100%

  • BCE

    -0.6300

    22.08

    -2.85%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0800

    8.15

    -0.98%

  • GSK

    -1.6900

    34.84

    -4.85%

  • NGG

    -3.0300

    62.9

    -4.82%

  • VOD

    -0.1500

    8.35

    -1.8%

  • RELX

    -2.6300

    45.53

    -5.78%

  • BP

    -1.2100

    27.17

    -4.45%

  • AZN

    -2.6700

    65.79

    -4.06%

After Beijing Winter Olympics, China eyes World Cup goal
After Beijing Winter Olympics, China eyes World Cup goal

After Beijing Winter Olympics, China eyes World Cup goal

After staging both a Summer and now a Winter Olympics, there is one major international sports event left for China to host -- the football World Cup.

Text size:

Football fan President Xi Jinping has said he wants China to stage and even win the men's World Cup one day, and the country has been building and renovating stadiums in apparent anticipation.

But analysts say Xi's dream faces a number of obstacles, starting with the dismal performance of the national team.

The men's side have only ever qualified for the World Cup once, in 2002, when they failed to win a point or even score a goal.

Their already failing 2022 Qatar World Cup hopes ended for good in a humiliating 3-1 defeat against Vietnam this month.

As hosts they would automatically qualify for the World Cup, but the current Chinese side would be in real danger of humiliation.

"Many believe China doesn't want to host a World Cup until they can be more confident the national team can perform well enough so as not to embarrass the country," said Cameron Wilson, founder of the Wild East Football website, which specialises in Chinese football.

Chinese football became famous a few years ago for splurging on famous foreign coaches and players, but those days are now long gone.

- No long-term vision -

China has been naturalising players, many of them Brazilian, but the national team remain stuck in 75th in the FIFA rankings.

Qatar were also a footballing minnow in 2010 when they won the right to stage this year's World Cup.

But they have improved since, going from 113th in the world to 52nd today.

However, Wilson warned that the changes needed for China to follow in those footsteps and become a football power are "massive and fundamental".

"Currently, Chinese football is dying because it is controlled by political, not sporting forces," he told AFP.

China needs to "reduce pressure on ordinary people so they are more willing to let their kids spend time on anything other than endless hours spent doing homework", he added.

"They also need to replace their football management structure with something much less top-down which allows football people to make decisions about the sport, not politicians."

Football has found itself in the crosshairs of the ruling Communist Party's purity drive in recent years, with players told to remove or cover tattoos and sometimes join military camps for drills and Marxist-style "thought education".

Mads Davidsen, ex-technical director of Chinese Super League side Shanghai Port, believes China has the "facilities and logistics to handle big events" -- the Beijing 2008 Games and just-finished Winter Olympics in the capital were evidence of that.

He expects China to make a bid for either the 2034 or 2038 World Cup.

"When I was in China, I advised them to make a 8-10 year vision and plan and forget the next World Cup, but build a solid platform of a Chinese football vision and the demands of the modern game," he said.

But there is a "lack of investment in the long term" and too much focus on immediate success, he said.

- Politics in football -

China managed to generate substantial interest in cold weather sports after winning the bid for the Beijing Winter Olympics, which ended on Sunday and saw the hosts come third in the medals table -- easily their best performance at a Winter Games.

Experts say that shows the country has the capacity to drive mass interest when needed.

Despite doom descending on Chinese football after a number of clubs folded in debt, including the former CSL champions Jiangsu Suning, Philippe Troussier believes the national side are "improving year by year".

"Chinese football has evolved a lot" with many club academies which "now invest in the detection, selection and training of young players", said Troussier, who worked for several Chinese clubs and is now Vietnam U-20 coach.

But the Frenchman warned there is still not yet enough infrastructure or coaches, and others warned having a competitive team alone is not enough for a successful World Cup bid.

Bo Li, professor of sports management at Miami University, said football's world governing body FIFA is interested in awarding the competition to host countries who can share -- something which seems unlikely in China's case.

"The competition... is a lot more intensive compared to the Olympic bid," he said, pointing out that the voting format "requires the interested country to have a great relationship with the majority of FIFA members".

"Given the current diplomatic relations, it does not seem that China could work with any neighbouring nation for a co-bid," he warned.

F.Garcia--TFWP