Radical CSL idea questioned
A reported proposal to enter China’s national team in the Chinese Super League in a bid to improve the squad’s fortunes has been met with ridicule and uproar online, casting early doubt on the radical idea.
Ma Dexing, deputy editor-inchief of Titan Sports, revealed on Monday afternoon that the Chinese Football Association is considering the move, despite the vast majority of the squad plying their trade in the CSL with clubs such as Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai SIPG and Beijing Guo’an.
“Having covered soccer for more than 30 years, I was so excited to learn that the CFA came up with such a wise idea. I raise all my three hands in approval to the suggestion,” Ma said in a post on his micro-blog account, which he later deleted.
The CFA did not respond to an inquiry about the report from China Daily by evening time on Monday.
Another journalist, Zhao Zhen, who is affiliated to Soccer News, claimed in a subsequent post on Sina Weibo that the idea was actually floated by the General Administration of Sport of China during an internal discussion.
Zhao contended that the proposal might be worth more discussion, considering the national team’s failure to qualify for the ongoing World Cup finals — its fourth straight failed attempt to reach the tournament since its solitary qualification in 2002.
Although far from being a concrete proposal from an official meeting, the idea sparked heated debate online, with fans either questioning or mocking the supposed plan.
“What if the national team gets relegated to the lower-tier league? What if the other clubs don’t release their players to the national squad?” a Weibo user named Wanjiang commented.
The reported proposal, real or misinterpreted, is symptomatic of the desperation felt by the sport’s governing body, media and fans in China during the World Cup in Russia, where smaller soccer nations such as Japan and the host reached the knockout stages of the marquee event, said observers.
A similar idea of playing the Under-23 national side in China’s second-tier league to prepare it for future Olympic Games was proposed in 2010 by then CFA chief Wei Di. However that plan failed to materialize after meeting strong opposition from clubs.
In November 2017, the CFA called off a controversial plan to enter China’s Under-20 squad as an expansion team in Germany’s fourth division was abandoned due to logistical problems.
The plan was originally agreed by the CFA and its German counterpart as an experiment to help improve the performances of young Chinese players in a five-year deal.
Having covered soccer for more than 30 years, I was so excited to learn that the CFA came up with such a wise idea. I raise all my three hands in approval to the suggestion.”
Ma Dexing, deputy editor of Titan Sports