Comments by "Canice Tang" (@canicetang8837) on "China Plans to Dominate the World of Football by 2050" video.
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The problem always is that whomever the sport that President of Mainland will like would be the direction where the money was pouring into. In the time of Mao, it was table tennis. Then it was Basketball with Jiang. Now it is football with Xi.
But there is always the problem with Mainland China. It is a state controlled funding from the young all to way getting the best to the Olympics. They were trained to be the athletes for the glory of the 'Strong Country'. Not only were they away from everyone including their own family, but they were tortured in the name of sacrifice.
Moreover, once they are successful. The state kept a tab on their training and demanded that they fork a significant part of their cash winnings back to them. The problem is, once they outlive their usefulness for the Mainland's propaganda machine. They were cast away like trash without any safety net for the rest of their lives. Only the most successful with the big names could either stay behind and earn as coaches at the provincial and the national levels. Or lucky enough to leave and be the national coaches for foreign countries. Former Tennis star and World's top 10 player Li Na was criticized by the government for not giving the state's share of her winnings. Despite she was trained without their help.
Therefore, state sponsorship for sports can be dried up without a moment's notice. About 20 years ago, China's Women Football team rivaled with the US as the best in the world. All of the sudden, they dropped out of nowhere. It was the same 30 years prior with their Women Ice Hockey team. Sure, they were nowhere against the powerhouses in the Canadians and the Americans ladies, but they held their own against other strong European countries such as Sweden and Finland. But just like Basketball, the funding dried up.
It is well documented that a lot of Middle East business were using big European Football teams as a front for money laundering. The Chinese Corporations, mostly state sponsored or affiliated, are doing just the same in purchasing big name teams such as both AC and Inter Milan and splashing ludicrous contracts for players and managers for the Chinese Super League.
Problem is, economy goes through the cycles of ups and downs. It is pretty easy to overspend and vaporized the league if they are all swimming in a deep sea of red ink. It was evident from the NASL failed experiment to the obvious talent gap in the hot beds of World Football both in Europe and South America.
This might be the beginning but without a proper coaching and training system available to the Mainland Chinese children, how would they measured up against the best of Asia, which are Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Iran at the moment? Let alone with the likes of the European and the South American powerhouses?
The only reason why China qualified for the 2002 World Cup were solely because South Korea and Japan were the co-hosts of the tournament, and 2 spots were freed up. Currently, they would needed a miracle to even qualify to the third place playoffs in their Hex group because they were so far behind the standings. With only a significant 1-0 victory over South Korea as a decent result. They drew 0-0 in both tides in the earlier round against a much weaker opponent in Hong Kong and just barely got through in the last game.
Also the Chinese Super League is popular due to the government and the corporations throwing money to have token media headlines. The quality of the product is still far from the other established leagues in South Korea, Japan and even Australia. Given how stars like Demba Ba was almost crippled from lousy tackles by those Mainland players who shouldn't even be playing the game. It gave the stark reminder to the current big stars of whether they would like to gamble their playing career or accepting instant big paycheques.
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