Zürcher Nachrichten - After Beijing Winter Olympics, China eyes World Cup goal

EUR -
AED 4.181423
AFN 81.781957
ALL 99.054489
AMD 445.081096
ANG 2.051752
AOA 1038.233427
ARS 1324.574033
AUD 1.784458
AWG 2.049145
AZN 1.935864
BAM 1.962859
BBD 2.310469
BDT 139.040029
BGN 1.955803
BHD 0.429092
BIF 3402.437301
BMD 1.138414
BND 1.500464
BOB 7.907228
BRL 6.514802
BSD 1.144295
BTN 97.685014
BWP 15.632946
BYN 3.744935
BYR 22312.915877
BZD 2.298626
CAD 1.576442
CDF 3275.217232
CHF 0.940552
CLF 0.027949
CLP 1072.533934
CNY 8.295595
CNH 8.302511
COP 4897.741956
CRC 575.451804
CUC 1.138414
CUP 30.167973
CVE 110.658099
CZK 25.005237
DJF 203.779271
DKK 7.465708
DOP 67.962323
DZD 150.60095
EGP 58.013015
ERN 17.076211
ETB 153.564865
FJD 2.570482
FKP 0.858718
GBP 0.855558
GEL 3.119033
GGP 0.858718
GHS 17.621909
GIP 0.858718
GMD 81.36156
GNF 9907.673603
GTQ 8.814312
GYD 239.404661
HKD 8.832653
HNL 29.66669
HRK 7.537893
HTG 149.495813
HUF 407.77198
IDR 19185.977015
ILS 4.161769
IMP 0.858718
INR 97.183013
IQD 1499.091177
IRR 47941.469167
ISK 144.897573
JEP 0.858718
JMD 180.867275
JOD 0.807365
JPY 162.289465
KES 147.254059
KGS 99.033486
KHR 4580.068969
KMF 494.645473
KPW 1024.508386
KRW 1633.635448
KWD 0.348935
KYD 0.95363
KZT 593.534527
LAK 24739.972293
LBP 101906.906331
LKR 342.98347
LRD 228.863008
LSL 21.25233
LTL 3.361441
LVL 0.688616
LYD 6.220261
MAD 10.592214
MDL 19.670742
MGA 5193.586438
MKD 61.523869
MMK 2389.650892
MNT 4033.535056
MOP 9.145992
MRU 45.349697
MUR 51.569644
MVR 17.537285
MWK 1984.301276
MXN 22.301875
MYR 4.982802
MZN 72.858482
NAD 21.25233
NGN 1836.284919
NIO 42.107733
NOK 11.873202
NPR 156.298979
NZD 1.904544
OMR 0.438302
PAB 1.144305
PEN 4.231819
PGK 4.66666
PHP 64.345452
PKR 321.439545
PLN 4.277756
PYG 9153.758821
QAR 4.189081
RON 4.977379
RSD 117.673188
RUB 94.801425
RWF 1633.531618
SAR 4.270172
SBD 9.490938
SCR 16.223702
SDG 683.618508
SEK 10.945356
SGD 1.493384
SHP 0.894615
SLE 25.898628
SLL 23871.955467
SOS 653.93451
SRD 41.950551
STD 23562.872911
SVC 10.01301
SYP 14801.829153
SZL 21.25908
THB 38.12566
TJS 12.186692
TMT 3.995833
TND 3.426974
TOP 2.666281
TRY 43.624368
TTD 7.772954
TWD 37.037508
TZS 3062.333572
UAH 47.78782
UGX 4194.975832
USD 1.138414
UYU 48.241372
UZS 14738.002236
VES 94.843462
VND 29636.333624
VUV 136.38156
WST 3.156
XAF 658.30712
XAG 0.034111
XAU 0.000341
XCD 3.076621
XDR 0.81873
XOF 658.312923
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.196303
ZAR 21.28075
ZMK 10247.089283
ZMW 32.470202
ZWL 366.568868
  • RBGPF

    63.0000

    63

    +100%

  • CMSC

    0.2800

    22.16

    +1.26%

  • CMSD

    0.2800

    22.29

    +1.26%

  • SCS

    0.1300

    9.75

    +1.33%

  • BTI

    -0.2900

    42.51

    -0.68%

  • AZN

    0.6400

    68.51

    +0.93%

  • RIO

    0.5800

    60.2

    +0.96%

  • GSK

    0.4000

    37.03

    +1.08%

  • NGG

    -2.6400

    71.71

    -3.68%

  • JRI

    0.1500

    12.49

    +1.2%

  • BCC

    0.3000

    93.33

    +0.32%

  • RELX

    -0.4000

    52.7

    -0.76%

  • RYCEF

    0.3400

    9.84

    +3.46%

  • BP

    -0.2700

    28.6

    -0.94%

  • BCE

    -0.0300

    22.22

    -0.14%

  • VOD

    -0.2800

    9.3

    -3.01%

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.

T.Furrer--NZN