China's soccer requires cash injection at grassroots

It has been announced that Portugal and Spain will be the hosts of the 2030 World Cup, and that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup.

That is big news for soccer fans around the world, except for those in China who remain dismayed by the Chinese soccer team's failure to make it to the highest stage.

After making its debut in the 2002 Japan-ROK World Cup, and its only appearance on the World Cup stage so far, Chinese men's soccer has drifted farther and farther from the world's soccer pitches, for many reasons with "Chinese characteristics".The FIFA ranking of the men's national team had fallen from around 50th to 90th as of last month.

That is in stark contrast to the trajectory of its neighbors, including Japan and the Republic of Korea. Chinese soccer has declined quickly along with the fast increase of input, largely due to the bursting of the real estate bubble and the reduction of ill-supervised capital of State-owned enterprises, over the past 20 years.

The false prosperity of the Chinese soccer climaxed in 2013, when Guangzhou Evergrande FC became the Asian club champion — thanks to many world-class players it bought from European and South American clubs at a price they couldn't refuse — 20 years after its founding with investment from a real estate group bearing the same name as the club, which was plunged into a huge debt crisis more than four years ago.

Attracting naturalized players with high payment to play for the Chinese men's national soccer team was regarded as a shortcut for the country to make its mark on the game. But that has not been the case. Meanwhile, the dozens of foreign players on the clubs' payroll have not only squeezed the space for Chinese players but also guzzled the money that the clubs should have spent on youth training.

No wonder during that course of time the number of Chinese players playing for major foreign clubs has fallen from 20 at the peak to zero since three years ago.

After the bursting of the real estate bubble, the authorities launched the latest anti-graft campaign. That a high number of soccer officials, referees, players, coaches and club managers have been found guilty of corruption, match fixing, and other misbehaviors also highlights the role corruption has played in sucking the lifeblood from the game in China.

With the money no longer flowing to the clubs, the naturalized and foreign players are leaving the country in batches.

And the lack of funding is further compounded by the weak economy which has seriously restricted the recovery of the country's youth training system, leaving Chinese soccer in an indefinite gap period, when other Asian countries are quickly integrating into the world soccer following in the footsteps of Japan and the ROK.

The difficulties faced by Chinese soccer are an epitome of the overall challenges confronting the Chinese socioeconomic development. To resolve these difficulties also entails institutional reforms to let the law of the market play a decisive role in allocating resources and attracting more young people to the soccer fields.

It is also imperative that Chinese soccer opens up to the world by encouraging more Chinese players to play in foreign leagues. Only by going global can the country do its things well in soccer.