President Xi Jinping’s China’s plan for world soccer domination has already begun. Last year, China made soccer a mandatory sport for all school children, and planned to increase the number of schools specializing in soccer education from 8,000 to 20,000 within the next four years. This alone would allow 30 million primary and secondary students to pick up the sport.

In developing the sport at the grassroots level, a four-tier school league system has been developed, involving some 2.7 million players. An additional 70,000 new soccer fields will be built to accommodate a new three-tier amateur system involving 100 cities. By 2020, 50 million people are expected to be playing soccer regularly in China.

The second phase of development will take place between 2020 and 2030, when China will instead focus on the economy to further develop soccer. After establishing the sport’s infrastructure, China will help soccer-related businesses become a driving force in the development of the sport. During this phase, it’s hoped that the men’s national team will become a super power in Asia, while the women’s national team will be a top world contender.

The last phase, between 2030 and 2050, is relatively light on details; but, according to the People’s Daily Online, China generally plans to “go all out” and become a top-tier soccer nation.

Although China has promised to do so, it has yet to announce a deadline by which it will host, qualify for, and win the FIFA World Championship.

To date, China’s highest soccer accomplishment was in 2002, when the men’s national team qualified for the World Cup. That year, South Korea hosted the games and automatically qualified, allowing China to qualify from the local rounds without facing its top soccer rival.

During their only World Cup appearance, the Chinese men’s national team failed to score a single goal, and lost all of its matches. The country currently ranks 81st in international soccer rankings, behind Cyprus.

The post China To Become “Soccer Superpower” By 2050 appeared first on The Nanfang.

The school is being jointly established by a Chinese company and European hockey professionals. Beijing Super Papa Culture Communications plans to import North European ice hockey training systems to the school, which will host Olympians and coaches from Germany and Switzerland.

A scholarship program is expected to be announced as a way to help promote hockey among Chinese children.

Recently, China has taken a number of steps to improve the sport of ice hockey in the country.

Last year, Song Andong became the first Chinese-born player to be drafted by the NHL. Selected in the 6th round by the New York Islanders, Song helped Beijing win the Chinese National Hockey League Championship, and served as captain for the Chinese national team during the Ice Hockey U18 World Championship.

More recently, the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) announced an expansion that will see Beijing host a hockey team as soon as this September.

The emphasis on improving Chinese hockey has become more urgent as the 2022 Winter Olympics draws near. As the Games’ most prestigious sport, it would be nothing short of losing face if, as the host, China was unable to make a good showing.

However, hockey has to contend with the soccer ambitious of President Xi Jinping, who has made soccer a mandatory sport among schoolchildren nationwide, even setting up specialized “soccer academies”. Although China’s international soccer achievements are as nebulous as those for hockey, the difference is Chinese people have a passion for the former.

So how do you convince more Chinese to support ice hockey?

You could always tell them “Hockey is the sport for the best men!” as did Yao Naifeng, a former Chinese national men’s hockey team player and the former head coach of the country’s women’s hockey team.

Yao thinks that hockey provides numerous benefits to a growing child who participates in it. “Positive changes, for example those in physical fitness, willpower and the sense of teamwork, will take place in a child after he or she starts to play hockey,” said Yao.

Will this new Beijing hockey school provide such benefits to Chinese children? Time will tell, as we will also have to wait and see if such a school will help China adhere to a “gold standard” that we have gotten familiar to seeing from past Olympics.

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There was a lot on the line going into Tuesday night’s World Cup qualifying match between China and Hong Kong: national/local pride, bragging rights to a long-standing rivalry, and a chance to progress in qualifying towards to the biggest show on earth.

The match was big news in Hong Kong, where tensions with the Mainland have boiled over in the past few years, most notably during the 79-day Occupy street protests last fall. Screens were set up around Hong Kong for people to cheer on the home team, with fans hoping the Chinese team could be knocked out of contention. And that’s basically what happened with the 0-0 draw. Now there’s only a slim path for China to qualify for the next round.

In China’s Group C division, Qatar remains in first place, and has secured a place for the next round. In order to advance, third-place China must win its next two games against the Maldives and the undefeated Qatar as well as hope other second-place teams in other Asian divisions perform poorly.

Chances also appear slim for second-place Hong Kong, but the team didn’t waver against an aggressive China in what turned out to be a tense game with several controversial moments involving disallowed goals.

In the 52nd minute, a shot from Hong Kong’s Festus Baise that wound up squarely in the Chinese goal was disallowed by the referee because he ruled teammate Paulinho had first fouled Chinese goalkeeper Wang Dalei.

Later, at the 78th minute, a header from forward Yang Xu to striker Yu Dabao resulted in a pair of shots on goal, with the second deflecting off the goal post and into the arms of Hong Kong goalkeeper Yapp Hung-fai. Despite Chinese players celebrating the shot as a goal, the referee disallowed it even though many Chinese fans thought the ball was saved after having crossed the goal line (seen above).

As contentious as these two disallowed goals may be, they paled in comparison to the real controversy of the game as Hong Kong fans loudly booed the national anthem. Hong Kong soccer fans at Mong Kok stadium were seen carrying signs and T-shirts saying “Boo”, “Support Your Own People” and “Hong Kong is Not China” as they chanted “We are Hong Kong” while holding up their middle fingers and shouting profanities against the mainland Chinese team.

The booing of the PRC anthem comes after Hong Kong fans were warned by the Hong Kong Football Association after previous booing that occurred during games with Qatar and Bhutan this past June. Although it can compete independently in the Olympics and the World Cup, Hong Kong S.A.R. is considered a part of of the People’s Republic of China, and so shares the same anthem. Future punishment could involve the Hong Kong football team playing their games without their fans present.

Many Hong Kongers considered the draw to be a win for the home team. Desperate for a win, though, Chinese soccer fans were bitterly disappointed by the draw.

A poll held by Sina revealed that half of the 18,000 respondents said they were angry with the results of the China-Hong Kong match-up, with another 27 percent saying they were disappointed. Seventy-five percent of the respondents asked for Chinese men’s soccer head coach Alan Perrin to step down.

This sentiment was taken to extremes by a fan who hacked into the Chinese Football Association’s website, leaving a note that criticized Perrin’s strategy (seen above). The hacker asked for Perrin and Chinese Football Association president Cai Zhenhua to be fired, along with Cai to be investigated by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Commission with a “discipline inspection”.

Meanwhile, reaction to possibly yet another failed campaign to qualify for the World Cup brought out anger and disappointment from netizens:

gladyholiday:
Chinese (Men’s) Soccer Team: Last time in Shenzhen (in September), the explanation was that there was a problem with the air. This time, they’re saying that Mong Kok Stadium is too small. You say this in spite of not being out of breath and having flushed faces! What a joke! Huh… maybe we should give them an award for “most creative (explanation)”?

梅州校园新鲜事:
Steps taken by the Chinese Soccer for every competition:
1. Upon drawing lots (for upcoming games), be sure to say many bold, visionary words. 2. Off to a good start, predict a good outcome against opponent. 3. Lose the initiative. 4. Maintain suspense. 5. Citing only theorhetical possibilities, watch how the opponent reacts. 6. Completely say goodbye to the small group by getting knocked out early. 7. Find new people who will fight for the honor. 8. Switch around personnel, get ready for the following World Cup.

写给远方：
Firmly request the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection make an inspection of the Chinese Soccer League!!!

人帅腿长毛也长：
Goodbye to this era, hello 2022. Get lost Perrin, you have destroyed yourself with this game.

景俊记：
There will always be a tomorrow. Why are there so many of them?

我系万远涛：
This is the emotional rollercoaster that China always does. Once a problem arises, they transfer attention in order to muddle the feelings of any patriotic Chinese. Heehee, it’s the same trick used by the party I belong to. 

进击的南大学生：
Encourage them for what? Since I was a child, I’ve been watching the Chinese men’s soccer team for ten years now. Encourage them? It’s been fricken ten years of encouragement.

托雷斯他老婆：
Keep on trying to find excuses. No need for anymore of this ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ business. If you can’t get it done, then leave.

Chinese celebrities have offered their own take on the failed chances of China’s men’s soccer team. CCTV anchor Duan Xuan said, “These past few years, there have been a number of changes throughout China, but it seems that only in soccer that ‘time passes so quickly that its beginning and end are the same,'” and also mused that “There’s a type of love that’s called ‘letting go’.”

The rivalry between Hong Kong and China for qualifying for the World Cup has been especially fierce this year. Hong Kong goalkeeper Yapp Hung-fai alleged that he was spat upon and insulted as a “dog” by Chinese team captain Zheng Zhi during their September match in Shenzhen. And even before competition began, the Chinese Football Association courted controversy by publishing promotional posters that singled out Hong Kong for having a mixed-race team (seen above), something the China Daily looks to prolong by pointing out the Hong Kong team had “six naturalized players in the line-up” in its follow-up report on Tuesday’s game.

In 1985, Hong Kong ruined China’s chances at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico by knocking them out with a win, leading to riots outside the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing.

China’s sole appearance at the World Cup was in 2002. At that time, the country was able to capitalize on the absence of South Korea during the qualifying rounds since South Korea had already been guaranteed a spot as World Cup hosts.

Related:

• Yao Ming Rejects Soccer As The Future Of Chinese Sport
• Newspaper Blasts China’s Soccer Cheerleaders For Being Ugly
• “Hong Kong is Not China” Artwork Spreads Fast Online

The post China Shocked After Hong Kong Deals Heavy Blow to World Cup Hopes in Highly-Politicized Match appeared first on The Nanfang.

The Mainland team was heavily favored to beat Hong Kong, so the draw is seen in some quarters in Hong Kong as a victory and a loss for the Mainland. Hong Kong soccer goalie Yapp Hung-fai, who stopped all of mainland China’s 39 shots on goal, said this on Instagram: “We made it! Also, we, the Hong Kong team, intended to defend. You were mad at not winning the match and approached me to call me a dog. Asian Footballer of the Year, you have good skills, but you fail in terms of sportsmanship!”

Yapp confirmed to Hong Kong media that the “Asian Footballer of the Year” he was referring to was Zheng Zhi, captain of the mainland Chinese team. When asked by news media, Zheng responded that the incident “simply didn’t happen”:

At the time, the referee was at the scene. If I had insulted him or had displayed any untoward behavior, the referee must have have seen it.

Zheng said his team was under pressure as the match was winding down, and complained to the press that the Hong Kong soccer team was displaying unsportsmanlike behavior by trying to run out the clock:

It was clear to everyone that our opponents played defensively rather than offensively to try to run out the clock. We expected that they would play defensively, but did not think that our opponents would try to run out the clock.

Hong Kong soccer coach Kwok Ka-ming said it would be difficult to verify Yapp’s claims without an actual audio recording of the incident.

A “dog” is a mainland Chinese slur used on Hong Kong residents and has British imperialist overtones, something similar to the Hong Kong insult of “locust” used on mainland residents.

Controversy between the mainland China and Hong Kong soccer teams has erupted before. A mainland Chinese campaign promoting the match-up with the ethnically-diversive Hong Kong team drew criticism, while mainland Chinese fans were enraged when the PRC national anthem at a Hong Kong match with Bhutan was booed.

Hong Kong remains at the top of their World Cup qualifying division, and will take on undefeated Qatar on Tuesday. Hong Kong and China will play again on November 17 at Mong Kok Stadium in Hong Kong.

The post Chinese Soccer Star Calls Hong Kong Goalkeeper a “Dog” in Emotional Qualifying Match appeared first on The Nanfang.

The match was broadcast on CCTV-5, so the Hong Kong fans’ reaction was witnessed by many mainland viewers. Although mainland sporting reports made no mention of the booing, and the subject has not been very popular on Chinese social media, there have been some extreme reactions from mainland Chinese:

深圳的陆陆:
After watching the broadcast of the Hong Kong-Bhutan soccer match in which Hong Kong soccer fans intentionally hissed the (Chinese) national anthem, all I can say is: get the hell out of here! Forget it, (we mainlanders) are not going to recognize such rude offspring (as you Hong Kongers).

虚无の栤幽:
It’s already hard for me to describe this in words. Just give me a tank already.

earth000kkk:
Murder them all.

万国行:
(When the Chinese national anthem played,) the (Hong Kong) team members were solemnly standing at attention, but spectators were being rowdy. There weren’t many that sang along. What does this signify? That Hong Kongers don’t recognize China (as its country)? Possibly.

管至父:
Doesn’t Hong Kong have its own anthem? The central government is too small minded. When Scotland competes, is it prefaced by the English national anthem?

花心小衰哥丶:
What song does the Taiwan team play during the qualifying rounds for the World Cup? Is it the (same as the PRC anthem)?

管至父 (in response to above):
(They play) the anthem to the Ming Dynasty.

等你回来丶v:
We… have reached… our limits…

老衲无悔4:
Give me a tank. I can’t take it anymore.

萨内蒂爱国米:
If they’re going to boo, then let them. What can we do as the losers that we are? We’d just curse at them from behind our keyboards.

心碎的王子 (responding to above):
Isn’t it illegal to insult the national anthem in a public place?

伊不拉稀我拉稀:
Can you give me a tank?

蓝黑Interview:
Cut off the supply of water and food.

重庆重庆LIFAN:
It doesn’t matter because when the time comes, it will be a 20-0 bloodbath for the national team. Both at home and away. A massacre at Mongkok.

The Chinese Football Association had previously released a number of posters promoting the Asian qualifying rounds, which had been controversial in their own right, by describing the Hong Kong soccer team as a hodge-podge of “black skin, white skin, and yellow skin”. Some netizens considered this to be the reason why Hong Kongers booed the PRC national anthem.

Here’s what netizens had to say on this issue:

NAKACHEN:
Because the China Football Association had released a series of provocative posters, this had sparked anger in Hong Kong soccer fans. So when they play the ‘March of the Volunteer Army’ (the PRC anthem), fans hissed in retaliation.

混世球魔LZ:
This is all the fault of the Chinese FA! Those posters were beyond the pale! If these piggy team members won’t prove to be disappointing, their management sure will!

bonafantasy:
This has nothing to do with the poster. Glorious Hong Kong has always been this way!

baozi1101100:
The soccer league can’t badmouth the national anthem. The national anthem is sacred and cannot be blasphemed against! Hong Kongers notion of national pride has gotten watered down.

tcjtsw (responding to above):
It hasn’t gotten watered down. They simply don’t have any.

折翼泪:
Simply just a bunch of brainless brats.

黑郁金香_u0:
(Hong Kongers) don’t have any morals. China, Japan, and South Korean dispute with each other all the time, and yet they’ve never booed at each other’s national anthem!

hh12390的春天 (responding to above):
This is a reasonable (response). Hong Kong’s power of independence must be quickly squelched.

104五:
(Hong Kongers) always consider mainlanders to be locusts (a derogatory term implying ravenous consumption). Even if there wasn’t a poster (from the Chinese FA), they’d still boo us.

The post HK Soccer Fans Boo PRC Anthem; Mainlanders Enraged appeared first on The Nanfang.

Chinese soccer fans are filled with renewed excitement as they eye the road to the next FIFA World Cup following an impressive performance at the 2015 Asian Cup last January. Qualifying matches for Asian countries are set to begin on June 16, with China’s first match against Hong Kong, which has its own team.

With expectations running high, China FA is heeding fans to be wary of the competition with a set of new posters it has released which promote the upcoming matches. The posters are designed to display a sense of disrespect towards China’s soccer adversaries, taking potshots at them that run the gamut from being amibiguously racist to topically irreverent.

The poster promoting China’s match with its “other system”, the Hong Kong SAR, is translated as follows:

Don’t underestimate any opponent. This team has black skin, yellow skin and white skin people. Playing a team with such diverse background, you’d better be prepared.

As CFA said on its official WeChat account, the poster was meant to highlight Hong Kong’s cosmopolitan and “open and inclusive” nature that has made the team an “international brigade”. But the poster doesn’t say that — rather, it just features a picture of several men with different complexions. The Hong Kong Football association put a poster on its Facebook page yesterday that said: “Avoid being despised. Our team has dark-skinned, yellow-skinned and white-skinned players united by a common goal: to teach, to stand up for Hong Kong. You as fellow Hongkongers must stand with us.”

The Hong Kong poster isn’t the only questionable one, though. The poster for the China vs Maldives match features a “Charlie’s Angels” pose from three men in suits:

Hearing their captain said they want to beat China to secure second place in the group. Playing such a proud yet frail team, you’d better be prepared.

This is the poster for China’s match with Bhutan in which the captain’s other job as an airplane pilot is highlighted, as seen in the illustration:

After the game someone from their team will go back to fly an airplane. duang! Playing a team like this, you’d better be prepared.

“Duang” is a word made up and used online that denotes surprise through the use of special effects, and is similar to the English phrases “Ta da!” or “Presto!”

Here’s the poster for the Qatar match that features an illustration of three men dressed as hip-hop gangsters:

They are well-known for having so many naturalised reinforcements. Playing such a wealthy team you’d better be prepared.

Overconfidence crashed the wave of euphoria that swept China into the Asian Cup semi-finals. As for the World Cup qualifiers, we can only guess how the Chinese national team will do against airplane captains and mixed-race teams.

The post China’s Soccer Team Criticized for Poking Fun at Hong Kong’s Multi-Racial Team appeared first on The Nanfang.

However, this means that other popular Chinese sports have been pushed aside to promote President Xi’s dream: volleyball, ping pong, and much to Yao Ming’s regret, basketball.

As an attending member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Yao took time to promote his proposed “Promotion of specialized physical education classes” bill. While happy to see reforms promoting physical education, Yao is concerned the soccer-centric focus will have a negative effect on basketball and other sports:

I resist this ‘Great Leap Forward’ of the sporting world in China. I worry that temporarily stopping all other sports just for the sake of promoting soccer (is a problem) in some areas of China. Even if there is the possibility that soccer will be able to accomplish its goals, the fact remains that all other sports will suffer (because of it).

Yao tempered his words by saying that China should not be afraid of reform or of making mistakes, and that all good reforms inevitably come with trial and error.

Yao also spoke out against the current approach to sports in China, in which elite athletes are segregated from the public to take part in specialized programs, something Yao personally knows about. Yao spoke candidly about long-distance runner Chen Penbin as an example of how athletes should be cultivated in China going forward:

(Chen Penbin and I) are peers, but our family background and upbringing are not the same. I am an athlete brought up from the national team; this is something I will never deny. However, (Chen) is a ‘civilian superstar’; these types of athletes are increasingly getting more recognition by Chinese society and showing their worth. I feel that this is a real breakthrough in the sports world. We need more people like him.

As China looks to the future, it has set some lofty goals for itself; such as hosting and winning a World Cup soccer championship, and to create a domestic sports industry worth RMB 5 trillion. Yao said the country shouldn’t focus entirely on the money:

If we were to build 20 more ‘Bird’s Nests’ (the Olympic stadium in Beijing), we could attain this goal very quickly. But instead, I think it is important to have spirited competition and to focus on building a strong sports community.

The post Yao Ming Rejects Soccer As The Future Of Chinese Sport appeared first on The Nanfang.

This October, Shenzhen will host a pre-season NBA game between the Charlotte Hornets and the LA Clippers. The game will take place on October 11 at the Shenzhen Universiade Center as part of the NBA Global Games China 2015 series. The teams will face off again four days later in Shanghai on October 14 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Players will also take part in a number of off-court activities including NBA Cares community programs. The announcement came from NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo in Shenzhen.

NBA China CEO David Shoemaker called Shenzhen an obvious candidate for an NBA game, and described the Shenzhen Universiade Center as a “world class” arena. Shoemaker said China is becoming an important market for the league. There are currently 1,200 coaches receiving NBA training in China, while Dongguan has hosted a year-round program for elite teen players. Furthermore, the NBA is looking to have its weekend games located in US east coast cities to begin as early as 9 or 10 am in order to broadcast to a prime-time viewing audience in China.

READ: China Makes Football Mandatory In Schools As It Dreams of Championships

However, the popularity and growth of Chinese basketball is threatened now that China has declared soccer as the nation’s top priority. After President Xi Jinping announced he wants China to host the World Cup, other sports and priorities have given way. School curricula throughout the country have been changed to accommodate more soccer, something Chinese basketball star Yao Ming has lamented. He said basketball may have missed a golden opportunity.

Meanwhile, both the NFL and the NHL have announced their intention to jump into the Chinese market.

Related:

• NBA star Jeremy Lin in Dongguan to teach basketball
• NBA Star LeBron James Swings By Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Beijing
• NBA Teams Up with China in Landmark Deal to Promote Sports… But Will it Work?
• Is China Ready for NFL-style Football? New League To Start Next Year
• Is China Ready for the Toronto Maple Leafs?
• Guangzhou, Serious About Soccer, to Create 5,000 New Teams

The post LA Clippers and Charlotte Hornets to Play NBA Preseason Game in Shenzhen appeared first on The Nanfang.

Guangzhou has now revealed how it plans to contribute to the national goal with a new three-year plan designed to cultivate soccer skills in youngsters.

READ: China Makes Football Mandatory In Schools As It Dreams of Championships

As with school systems throughout the rest of the country, Guangzhou will make soccer classes compulsory for all students in elementary and middle schools as introduce a four to six day soccer seminar as part of the school’s curriculum every semester.

By the end of this year, soccer programs are to be set up in 300 Guangzhou schools. By 2015, 25 specially-dedicated soccer schools are to be established throughout the city. By 2016, 500 Guangzhou schools should be involved in the program, creating a total of 5,000 intra-mural soccer teams from 500 schools and involving 50,000 students. Also by 2016, 75 specially-dedicated soccer schools are to be established.

READ: China Faces a Rocky Path to Football Superiority

The new focus on soccer and physical education is a radical departure from the standard practice of rote-learning in preparation for the gaokao, the university entrance qualifying exam.

Soccer development at a grassroots level is also a move away from the recent popularity of exclusive soccer schools with high tuition fees, such as the RMB 1.2 billion ($195 million) academy operated by Guangzhou Evergrande.

While President Xi has expressed his national dream for China’s youth to be healthy, a renewed emphasis on soccer may also reflect Xi’s desire for China to qualify, host, and win the World Cup, as seen here in cartoon form.

READ: Guangzhou to Build 100 New Football Pitches by 2016

Institutionalized soccer instruction is not new to China. In the 90s, around 4,000 traditional soccer schools were closed when Chinese football’s image tanked due to a failure to win Asian titles or qualify for the World Cup.

Aside from soccer, other international spots have seen great potential in China for sports development. Professional sports associations representing football, basketball and ice hockey have all expressed interest in developing their respective sports in China.

Related:

• Nanfang TV: Guangdong’s “Football Factory” an Attempt to Make China a Football Power
• The Nanfang Talks Evergrande and Chinese Football with Renowned Blooger
• Lionel Messi Says China Needed To Make Football Truly Global

The post Guangzhou, Serious About Soccer, to Create 5,000 New Teams appeared first on The Nanfang.

Biabany in action, via Google Images

We all know that China and Chinese football clubs are willing to pay crazy money to become a football force in the world. The biggest success story so far has been Guangzhou Evergrande becoming Asian champions last year with both foreign and homegrown talent.

Although there may be trust issues after the club’s failure to sign Diamanti, Parma appear resigned to losing their man.

Parma manager Roberto Donadoni commented on the situation, basically stating that it’s up to the player now: “Is it a waste that Biabiany might go to China? There are emerging realities, that want to improve and to grow. To do that, you need to search for important players. Everything comes down to a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ that the player have to say to who is pursuing him.”

There you have it, he is “wasting” his career by accepting “staggering” money.

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