Shanghai. After the surprising 4-0, the fans dressed in green and white are cheering in each other’s arms. In the “Haxnbauer” in Shanghai, an inn with deer antler decorations, beer mugs and waitresses in dirndls, dozens of football enthusiasts met for a “public viewing” this Saturday evening. But the domestic Chinese Super League (CSL) is by no means running on the screen, but ball sport from the west: Borussia Mönchengladbach versus Eintracht Frankfurt.
The 21-year-old Lu can only be enthusiastic about the German Bundesliga and the Spanish “La Liga”. Chinese football is anything but cool, says the gaunt business student with the rimless glasses: “The girls are more into the tall basketball players, Chinese footballers are not that popular. And my relatives cannot really understand why you watch a football game for over an hour and often not a single goal is scored. “
The dream of the big football nation is over
When the new season of the CSL begins on Tuesday, the euphoria is noticeably limited. The domestic ball sport is economically and athletically idle, the dream of the big football nation has long been over. As a symbol of the tragic status quo, the CSL has to do without last year’s champion: Jiangsu FC from Nanjing was dissolved after the sponsor withdrew. Around a dozen other clubs from the top three leagues also went bankrupt last season – fewer than in 2019.
“None of them make money. Of course, that will take its toll at some point, ”says a German sports official who runs a youth club in China. In terms of sport, the Chinese also played, far behind the neighboring football leagues in South Korea and Japan. “Yet you have just as many talents among the twelve-year-olds in China as you do in Germany, for example,” says the sports official, who wants to remain anonymous. Then, however, the academic pressure sets in: In the highly competitive education system, very few parents allow their offspring to pursue a football career.
In 2015, General Secretary Xi Jinping, himself a passionate fan of the round leather, declared the major project “football power” to be a top priority. It was said that by 2050 at the latest, it would be possible to get involved in the world’s best. But now, six years later, the Middle Kingdom is further from that vision than ever.
Dozens of companies, mainly from the real estate industry, have bought clubs with large sums of money. But most of them had neither a long-term strategy nor a clue about sports management. Instead, it was primarily a matter of fulfilling the politically decreed will through anticipatory obedience. Entry into the Chinese soccer league, it was calculated, would buy favors and networks among the leading party cadres.
Salary cap for foreign footballers
However, dozens of “football expats” from South America and Europe were attracted by the absurdly high wages, the Brazilians Hulk and Oscar were among the most prominent of them. But a maximum salary limit for foreign players of a maximum of 3 million euros per year, which has meanwhile been issued by the state, has clearly diminished the international appeal of the CSL.
But at least temporarily, the Chinese investment frenzy created a real hype. Dozens of foreign clubs – from FC Bayern to Manchester United – have set up offices in the People’s Republic. You want to sell merchandise, generate income through youth work and one day breed a Chinese player.
The industry speaks of the so-called Yao Ming effect: When the 2.29 meter tall basketball player Yao Ming moved to the NBA at the end of the 1990s, it created an unparalleled gold rush atmosphere: TV rights skyrocketed, jersey sales went through the ceiling and the youth suddenly became enthusiastic about basketball. After all, China is a market of 1.4 billion potential consumers.
When football looked promising, Peter Stebbings was sent to China in 2017. The only accredited sports journalist reports on football in the People’s Republic for the AFP news agency. On the 26th floor of a law firm, the Briton drew a mixed conclusion at an “after-work event”: “When I arrived here four years ago, people still thought that the Chinese league was a threat to the Premier League. In the meantime I sometimes ask myself: What am I still writing about here? “
Women’s national team as a glimmer of hope
And yet, says Stebbings, one shouldn’t be too critical of the Chinese football ambitions. It is still at the beginning, the establishment of sustainable structures takes a long breath. Notable results will probably be achieved in 20 years at the earliest.
Until then, however, the interest of young people is likely to continue to flatten. “For my parents, watching Chinese soccer games was still a welcome pastime after a strenuous week at work,” says the 32-year-old employee of a pharmaceutical company in Shanghai. But he himself came to soccer through the European and World Cups, and he considers the state of the domestic league to be hopeless: “There’s a common saying: soccer is soccer, but Chinese soccer is something completely different,” he says.
There is, however, a glimmer of hope: the women’s national team recently qualified for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo after a promising performance on the pitch.
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