Chinese football hit a new low on June 23 as the national U-23 squad were beaten 1-3 in Muscat by their Omanian peers and lost 1-4 on aggregate in 2012 London Olympic Games qualifiers. The defeat marks not only the most short-lived U-23 team in the history of Chinese football, but also could make Miroslav Blažević, the acclaimed Croat coach, the most short-serving national team manager since the Communist Revolution after only two competitive matches of coaching.

Chinese U-23 Team Lost in Muscat, Oman

Commentators, pundits and fans voiced their upset and anger on Chinese micro-blogging sites towards the Iranian Mohsen Torky and his linesmen, whose refereeing could be called into question on several occasions, most notably China’s goal called offside in the 93-minute. Miroslav Blažević reportedly called the referee a pickpocket when the team arrived back to their hotel. And almost as always, following Chinese teams’ defeats, the Chinese FA (CFA) was immediately criticized as corrupt and defunct.

With the likes of Nan Yong and Yang Yimin toppled in last year’s crackdown, the CFA formed its new leadership headed by Wei Di, former boss of China’s aquatic sports. Wei and his colleagues, as our ultimate Guo’an supporter B.Cheng noted in a post earlier, made a couple dubious calls leading up to U-23′s failure. But in the 18 months since Wei stepped in, he and his colleagues actually accomplished several things that should be given credit to.

The CFA’s recent accomplishments:

• Ending the ridiculous transfer policy that made players immovable up to 30 months (I’ll explain more about this in a separate post).
• Bringing back the reserve leagues – the attendance is not compulsory for all teams in the leagues as some clubs say they don’t have a budget for players’ traveling cost.
• Bringing back the FA Cup – a tournament seized to exist since 2006.
• Setting up National Youth Football Leagues (青少年足球联赛) -teams competing in this category are still mainly from pro clubs.
• Setting up School Football Test Cities (校园足球城市试点), a project initiated by a few politicians from the State Council, China’s cabinet, and jointly helped by the General Administration of Sport and the Ministry of Education. The CFA has a small office and a handful of people doing the fieldwork and, up until now, there’re  over 2,700 elementary and junior highs in 47 cities around the country signed aboard.

None of these works can offer short-term return to Chinese football, but all are positive for the development of the sport in the long run.  I’m especially amazed by the Test Cities project but if you really think about it, those kids in over 2,700 schools, an enormous players base, a new question emerged – how are you going to engage these boys 10 years from now?

The top priority on the FA’s agenda should be shedding their image as a bunch of officials who sit in their offices all day doing nothing but taking bribes and rigging matches. And if you have this image ingrained in people’s minds, I really don’t see many parents would consider football as a decent option for their kids. In fact, due to the former transfer policy and a lack of an independent players association, the welfare of Chinese footballers have been sandwiched by the FA and their employers all these years.

Take, for example, two Guangzhou Evergrande (广州恒大) players in the reverse team. The two blasted out their discontent about salaries on a micro-blogging site this May, and were fired the day after doing that. This, if put in perspective, is a dictating and irresponsible act from one of the weathest and most influential clubs in Chinese Super League. I wonder where could the two kids go and what other clubs might think after the incident. The FA offered no help to the two boys and didn’t say anything about the case. What they should do is let the players in the leagues feel they are valued and got their back given there is no players union.

The football population has been decreasing sharply all around China in the past decade. According to Shenzhen Evening News, there were 21 privately-run football academies that had 1,290 kids studying and over 70 football clubs with over 5,000 kids back in 2002 in Liaoning Province. The number of registered football academies this year is down to zero.

The hopes remains only if the FA conjures up a way of selecting the best talents from around the country. To achieve that, they need to a) establish a mechanism that can transfer new blood up through the ranks all the way from schools to pro clubs and b) let potential pro players feel that they have a future in this profession. Otherwise, we can expect Chinese football to tumble further.

Photo: Netease

When Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger visited Beijing last summer, there was one question in his mind. At a press conference, he asked the moderator, Huang Jianxiang, a well-known local football commentator, why China, with so many people, lacked a first-rate football team.

The question was laughed off by the commentator, who replied that it was because “We never had a coach like you.”

But coaching isn’t the core problem in Chinese football. The recent crackdown on match-fixing and underground gambling tells one that the beautiful game has rotten to the core in China.

In the past three months, more than 100 players, club owners and officials have been entangled in the investigation and last week both Nan Yong, vice president of the Chinese Football Association (FA) and Yang Yimin, a senior official in both the FA and the Asian Football Confederation, along with Zhang Jianqiang, FA’s head of referees, were detained by the police for interrogation.

Without waiting for formal charges, the three, who had each served in the FA for over 18 years, were soon ousted by the General Administration of Sport (GAS), the top governing body of sports in the country.

The news came as little surprise to many Chinese sports journalists. Instead of assuming their role as watchdogs by exposing wrongdoing in the sporting industry, they are now reveling in their knowledge of match-fixing scandals.

They’re making appearances in talk shows or shilling new books, enlightening the public about the severity of the scandals and how there’re still “big fishes” out there to be caught. But rarely did these stories that they supposedly knew all along make the headlines of their papers or TV programs.

At the end of 2007, CCTV-5, China’s main sports channel, did a program evaluating the work done by Xie Yalong, then FA president. After the program gave Xie low marks, the FA began snubbing interview requests from journalists representing the channel. The message from officials couldn’t have been clearer, and the media, eager to keep their access, understood it well.

Besides media indifference, the absence of law enforcement and tacit condoning of corruption by GAS are all causes of the ignominious practices in football. Evidence suggests that bribery and match-fixing prevail in the Chinese sporting world.

The current investigation in football was made possible only after top government officials decided that they wanted to “raise the level of Chinese football.” What is happening in football industry could well mirror other aspects of Chinese sport.

Last year, after Ma Yanping, an acclaimed diving coach, exposed that the finals of diving competition of last year’s 11th National Games had been rigged by Zhou Jihong, head of China’s national diving team and deputy director of the National Aquatics Sport Administration Center, officials from GAS soon came into Zhou’s defense. The police were nowhere to be seen.

Asked about the scandal by a reporter, Zhou, who helped China get 7 out of 8 gold medals with her strikingly young-looking diving team at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, retorted, “Which media organization do you work for?”

When addressing the same topic, Xiao Tian, deputy director of GAS said at a press conference that “you can’t say it had been fucking fixed, it’s fucking fake, just because you lost.”

In a post-match interview at the 11th National Games, He Wenna, China’s first trampoline Olympic champion, said that she knew who would win the finals long ago. There was no follow-up investigation and He was later criticized at a GAS meeting for her words.

The same happened at the judo, basketball and football matches of the National Games.

More recently, in the run-up to 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and Asian Para Games, members of the Guangzhou People’s Congress Standing Committee complained about a lack of information from the organizing committee on the sources and destinations of the funds for the two Games.

It’s reported that the Games cost 200 billion yuan ($29.28 billion) but no official figures have been released so far. Some worry that the lack of information on such a scale of government spending has already led to waste and embezzlement of taxpayers’ money.

It’s interesting to see how this heavy-handed investigation in football will play out, as the results might even shock those who started it.

Sport has long been regarded as a source of national pride in China. But when pride conflicts with laws and ethics and you hesitate, even for a moment, the battle against corruption is already lost.

Related reading:

• CS Moniter: Is China finally tackling its soccer corruption scourge?
• South China Morning Post: Another day, another raft of soccer scandals (subscription req’ed)
• Gongti Legends: Is it all worth it?
• Global Times: Fair play is sadly missing from Chinese sporting world

Deputy sports minister Xiao Tian (肖天) lost his temper on Thursday when denying the accusation and addressing the fact that a pair of divers with obviously smaller splash did not win.

“You can’t say it had been fxxking fixed, it’s fxxking fake, just because you lost,” Xiao told a news conference on Thursday, which was widely reported by local media.

“How can you only judge a routine by the size of splash? Even a fxxking amateur can make very little splash if only turns over once. Can you give him gold medal?” he added.

Xiao said investigation by the General Administration of Sports (GAS) had shown the accusation was groundless.

“GAS will definitely not tolerate any match fixing. If it happens, we will even take legal action,” said Xiao. “But it is not true.”

And Xinhua:

Li Hua, head of the National Aquatics Sport Administration Center of China, said here on Wednesday that the match-fixing allegations of the diving competitions during the 11th National Games are “irresponsible and groundless.”

Li, also the executive director of the Diving Competitions Committee of the National Games, denies all the allegations in an official statement sent to the media.

“The rumors said all the gold medals had been fixed before the competitions started. I think these rumors are irresponsible and groundless,” said Li.

“All the rules and process on managing the judges during the competitions of the National Games are very strictly followed. Nobody can fix the results of the competitions during such a fiercely competitive National Games,” he said.

And we’ve been paying taxes to fund them all these years…

Previoulsy:

• Olympic Trampoline Champion Hints At Match-fixing in the National Games
• What’s with China’s National Games?

Links and Sources:

• Reuters: China National Games open under shadow of judging scandal
• Xinhua: Top official: Match-fixing allegations “irresponsible and groundless”
• Beijing Evening News via NetEase: Agitated Xiao Tian used bad words (Chinese)

The new CSL season will be kicked off on March 21, with Shanghai Shenhua, Shandong Luneng and Beijing Guoan are among the favorites. While the defending champion Shandon Luneng lost their midfield general Zhou Haibin to PSV Eindhoven, Shanghai Shenhua spent over $ 8 ml USD in the transfer market this winter, snatching Mark Milligan from Newcastle United Jets in Australia’s A-League and another two players from FC MTZ-RIPO, a team in Belarusian Premier League. The Beijing Guo’an FC, or Imperial Guard, received a RMB 20 million yuan (roughly $ 2.92 million USD) boost from Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sport (BMBS) this January, and Li Weimiao, head of the Beijing Municipal Football Administrative Center, the football governing body under BMBS, became vice president of Guo’an Club.

There’s been rumors that the decision makers at General Administration of Sport in China (GASC) has been discussing whether to nationalize Chinese football by getting back clubs’ ownerships. “This could be the first step of GASC’s nationalization plan,” said Nan Fang, a former Beijing Guo’an midfielder to China Sports Review, “If they do it, they’re probably going to cross the river by feeling the stones.” Nan, co-founder and coach of Beijing Langyue Football School, attributes the futility of Chinese football to bad environment, namely fixed games and bribes in the league. “You can’t whiz everything back into the 80s. Things changed.” Aside from help fund a friendly match with world champion club Manchester Utd, BMBS will also help Guo’an develop youth players in the government-funded sports schools. “This would bring more young talents into the pool,” Nan noted. “I think the problem is whether they have enough good coaches there.”

China’s FA is currently in talks with Nike for a sponsorship deal. The sportswear manufacturer is reportedly to have prepared a 10-year-long contract for the clubs, with each club in the 2009 season could get equipments worth of RMB 5 ml and another RMB 1.5 ml fund. A lot money for some, the deal might not sound very riveting to big clubs like Beijing Guo’an, who is currently sponsored by Adidas.

Previously:

• Chinese to Enjoy English Premier League for Free?
• Go West! Chinese Footballers Now Can Transfer, Finally
• China May Juguo Its Professional Football League
  

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Beijing Youth Daily (北京青年报) yesterday published an impressive article about the future of China’s professional football league. The General Administration of Sport of China (GASC) and the Chinese Football Association (CFA) are currently considering taking back the ownership of football clubs from companies to local sports bureaus, a move clearly trying to put Chinese football under its controversial juguo or whole-nation sports regime. Below are some excerpts:

The establishment of professional football league made companies the owners of respective clubs. It bore some fruits to Chinese football but some defects as well. The professional league made all bosses of the teams put all of their energy into the first teams only, while neglecting the development of young talents of Chinese footabll. Moreover, the GASC and the CFA are left with little control over the clubs during the struggle of interests between them and club owners, a good example would be Wuhan Guanggu’s withdrawal from the Chinese Super League early this summer.

The GASC has held a couple of meetings after the Beijing Games discussing the problems of Chinese footabll. They come to the conclusion that the disastrous situation of Chinese football is brought on by poor management of football clubs. We haven’t seen the advantages of juguo sports regime from this department to date.

The GASC is preparing to take back to ownership of football clubs to local football associations and sports bureaus, making them the beneficiaries during club transactions and the main shareholders of clubs. Meanwhile, Companies can only become ad sponsors and cannot go into the management of the clubs.

Should the doomed Chinese football be juguoed as athletics, the GASC ideally would infuse a huge amount of capital into local sports bureaus to keep those youth teams, if they exist, up and running. But seriously, is Chinese football to cross the river by feeling the stones or go into the caves?  The Chinese men’s national football team has so far disqualified from whatever tournaments they attended and this probably made the smart guys at the GASC felt they got nothing to lose.

The Chinese football league was established in 1994.  The Chinese Super League, the top tier pro league, has given us enough shenanigans this year from club withdrawals to on-field fightings, and is banned by China Central Television, China’s main TV station, from broadcasting.

Source:

• Beijing Youth Daily: The GASC to take back football club ownerships (Chinese)
• BBC: China TV bans top football league

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Tan Jie, the director of Fenglu Club, cried at the press conference.

Guangdong Fenglu Aluminum Basketball Club (Fenglu, 广东凤铝铝业男子篮球俱乐部), founded in November 2006 by Guangdong Fenglu Aluminium Co.,Ltd, yesterday on November 2 made a statement about the club’s decision to quit Chinese Basketball Association(CBA, 中国篮球协会), governing body of Chinese basketball which is also the name of China’s premier professional basketball league. Below are some excerpts from the club’s statement.

- Stop Protecting Our Rights

In June 2008, Fenglu won the title of NBL, the secondary league to CBA, and thus qualified for getting promoted to the top league. The club had met all the 40 conditions of becoming a CBA team either in hardware or software in the evaluation by CBA staff in August. But on September 4, the Basketball Association and its league committee unofficially let CBA teams cast votes on whether nor not Fenglu should enter the league based on the principle of ‘geological balance of the clubs’. (CSR: Noted that CBA will have four teams based in Guangdong Province if Fenglu enters, as Olypian Professional Basketball Club (北京奥神职业篮球俱乐部) will return to CBA this year from the American Basketball Association.) The poll which is strongly against Qualification Paper issued by CBA should be questioned and we had to take it as a black box operation. Fenglu submitted the case to the General Administration of Sport of China later by the court based on China’s Sports Law and GASC’s regulations, hoping that they can do the supervising duty. The GASC replied at 6 pm on October 21 to the club: Your request is not in our accepting list, please submit it to other organizations concerned.Fenglu brought a suit against CBA on October 22 but it was rejected by the court. Until now, all CBA, GASC and People’s Court haven’t provide any possible help on this matter. Therefore, Fenglu decided to stop protecting its rights after seeing no hopes of getting protection through proper means.

- The Credibility of CBA Should Be Questioned

According to the Qualification Paper issued by CBA, Fenglu had met the requirements both in ranking and club conditions that can guarantee it a place in CBA. But the club was ‘balanced out’ due to a manipulated poll. Fenglu has been expecting CBA can deal with this matter properly based on respecting the regulations and being down-to-earth. Our club would accept the decision ifCBA could explain it in a reasonably and properly manner.

Fenglu questions CBA’s decision to disqualify the club from entering the top league. CBA staff first denied there’s a need of ‘geological balance of the clubs’ but later get it confirmed. It’s hard to understand what principles CBA has been following in doing their supervising duty. Looking back at the whole dispution process, the attitude and actions of CBA as a supervising body is disappointing, and we’re in doubt of its credibility.

Fenglu questions the so-called ‘democratic poll’, as the requirements of entering CBA are clearly stated in Qualification Paper and Qualification Details issued by CBA and there’s no so-called ‘democratic poll’ on them.

Fenglu questions the poll result. CBA tried to make up its already published first poll by orgnizing a second one on October 7 that included Fenglu Club as a voter. Had Fenglu been voted out after the first poll or the second? If it’s the first, why is it nessasary to include Fenglu in the second poll? If it’s the second, what’s the purpose of including Fenglu in it after CBA announced the club was disqualified already? This is ridicioulous.

]]> http://www.chinasportsreview.com/2008/11/03/the-battle-between-fenglu-club-and-the-chinese-basketball-association/feed/ 3 http://www.chinasportsreview.com/2008/10/31/china-to-restart-its-badminton-league-in-2009/ http://www.chinasportsreview.com/2008/10/31/china-to-restart-its-badminton-league-in-2009/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:42:41 +0000 David http://www.chinasportsreview.com/?p=56 Early this August, China’s badminton team won three golds, two silvers and three bronzes in the Beijing Olympics, ranking the 4th medal-winning sport for the country (the top three are gymnastics, weightlifting and diving). Chinese Badminton Association, sub-danwei of the General Administration of Sport of China (GASC), is recently considering bringing back its long gone badminton league, a move aiming at raising incomes of badminton players and coaches in local teams, and keeping Chinese players the cream of the crop.

Chinese Badminton Association once formed a league back in 1999, which went down in 2003 due to a failure of generating profits. Aside from international matches organized by Badminton World Federation, local players in China nationwide now can only play in two tournaments organized annually by the association: National Champions Tournament (全国冠军赛) and National Tournament (全国锦标赛), which is, no doubt, far from good for the development of young talents.

Li Yongbo, the head coach of Chinese National Badminton Team, told press recently that the association had decided to kick off a new badminton league next year even before the Olympics. “We’ll try to replace the tournaments by a league in 2009, and to make it bigger should we achieve our goal in 2010.”

Can Li and his fellow colleagues reach their goal? It’s reported that the association is looking for a sponsorship of about RMB 5-6 million to start. But if they are to follow the route of Chinese Table Tennis League, where clubs’ revenues are mainly generated by touring the country and getting bonuses from generous local private business owners, we’ll be curious to see how long they can make it under the current economic conditions.

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