What's happening with football in China?

foreign the Chinese president Xi Jinping revealed his dream for Chinese football the dream which consisted of three stages participating in a World Cup hosting the World Cup and most ambitiously becoming World Cup champions this football dream was codified in a policy document in 2016. the romantically titled long-term development plan 2016-50 and it set out rather bold targets by 2020 just four years after the plan was announced the aim was to have built 20 000 specialist football schools with seventy thousand new football pitches all of which would produce between 30 to 50 million football playing school children by 2030 the 20 000 schools would have become 50 000. China's men's team would have become one of the highest ranked teams in Asia and the women's team would have consistently ranked among the world's best by 2050 China would have become a football superpower ranked within FIFA's top 20 teams and hosted and won a World Cup and this International aspiration was matched domestically in the wake of the long-term development plan the clubs in the Chinese Super League were feeling emboldened to match the government's ambition in the space of two months across the winter transfer window of 2016-17 the Chinese Super League became the biggest spender in World football eventually splashing a total of 388 million euros on players including the 60 million pounds it cost to move Oscar from Chelsea to Shanghai sipg fast forward to 2022 though and the China Men's National Team have failed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar dropping down to 78th in the FIFA rankings the Women's National Team have failed to break into the top 10 and the Chinese Super League clubs that were spending so heavily in 2017 are no longer doing so the positivity of half a decade earlier has evaporated almost as soon as it appeared so what happened to football in China [Music] it's impossible to understand the recent history of football in China without recognizing the underlying socio-political context that motivated the she government to adopt such ambitious plans for the sport in 2016. at the turn of the 21st century China had re-emerged as a global power on the world stage this presented some challenges to the Chinese government primarily they wanted to shift the country's economic model away from low-end manufacturing production towards a more viable service and consumption model that would allow China to sit at the top table of the economic world and on top of this they wanted to overhaul the negative image of China as an authoritarian Communist Regime a view which would hold them back diplomatically within the modern geopolitical sphere in the end they lighted upon football as the key to achieve these aims fundamentally football offers a means by which to boost an economy in an Ernst and Young study released the year before she's long-term development plan of 2016 it was reported that the English Premier League adds an annual 3.4 billion pounds to the British gross domestic product resulting in 2.4 billion pounds in taxation and contributing to the employment of over 100 000 people and Beyond these initial economic aspects football also enables a population to attend football matches by merchandise and watch games on TV or online if you want to evolve your economy football does offer a fruitful Avenue but this sport can also be used to help shape the image of a country both within that country and outside of it too in 2008 the Chinese State underwrote 45 billion dollars worth of investment in the Beijing Olympics because it was supposed that the games contributed to a national pride narrative that would help the incumbent government push on with their attempts at economic reform perhaps more importantly the world of football opens itself up as a vehicle for soft power enabling governments to increase their standings within the geopolitical sphere in 2010 the Chinese government gifted Angola 500 million dollars in the form of four stadiums for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations across the next few years China became the biggest export market for angolan products most notably their oil Market football stadiums also provide spaces for government officials to network easily with representatives of other countries but despite these Grand ideas for football in China there was a glaring problem rather than boosting the economy she's long-term development plan seemed to have the opposite effect and this impact was felt in two areas primarily there was an internal impact on the Chinese economy in looking to improve the status of the Chinese Super League the clubs within the league had to compete with European clubs to obtain the signatures of the Marquee players that were needed to put the league on that map without the offer of Champions League football or domestic trophies in the top five European leagues the Chinese Super League clubs ended up wildly overpaying on players towards the end of their careers rather than expanding the Chinese economy the authorities realized that they were actually draining it to rectify this the state implemented a tax in 2018 that stipulated that any club that spent more than 5 million pounds on an overseas player would have to make a payment equal to the size of the transfer fee to the Chinese Football Association a salary cap was also introduced in 2020 limiting the sorts of fees that overseas players could pick up in the Super League along with this text the government also introduced a d corporatization of Club names within the league something which deterred many of the companies who'd originally invested in the Super League from continuing their involvement by deflating the economic bubble that they created in 2016 the Chinese State protected The Wider economy at the expense of football but there was also an external impact with xi's plans for football rolling out across the early years of the 2010s Chinese investors were encouraged to sink their money into European football clubs between 2014 and 2017 more than 2.5 billion dollars would move from China into European clubs with investors acquiring Giants such as AC Milan Atletico Madrid and internacionale as well as smaller outfits such as League 2 English team Northampton town and FC social montbellia in the French second division again the Chinese state became worried about capital outflows and so in 2017 they laid out new criteria for overseas investment including investment in sports clubs on a list of restricted sectors along with things such as Cinemas and real estate and this led to a lot of Chinese investors pulling their money out of these sorts of Ventures so it's now over 10 years since Xi Jinping announced his dream for football in China in that time the sport has experienced something of a rise and a fall where once it seemed like she wanted an accelerated pathway towards footballing success it now looks as though the focus is on generating a financially stable League whether or not this represents a failure to deliver on those initial plans remains to be seen by focusing more internally on the development of football in China it's clear that this approach will produce more young Talent from within the country which can then be fed into the national team but perhaps she and his government have begun to recognize the enormity of the task they envisioned as a matter of course just over a decade ago if you like this video please consider subscribing to the channel the athletic brings you the best sports journalism in the world in a personalized experience connecting you with the stories and teams that you care about the most there's coverage of 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Channel: Tifo Football

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Keywords: tifo football, tifo football youtube, youtube tifo football, tifofootball, tifofootball youtube, Chinese Super League, China, Jiangsu, Suning, Inter Milan, chinese Finances, Bankrupt, Beijing, Jiangsu Suning, chinese politics, Xi Jinping, china president, president of china, football in china, chinese footballers, Guangzhou Evergrande, oscar, oscar chelsea, What On Earth Is Going On In The Chinese Super League?

Id: -Rtgw2wiAMo

Length: 7min 58sec (478 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 07 2022