Fans, sponsors make it a World Cup with Chinese characteristics

SHANGHAI – True to form, China failed to qualify for the World Cup but the planet’s most populous country will be far from absent: thousands of its fans will fly to Russia, and Chinese sponsors will loom large on global TV screens.

Despite not being able to cheer on their home side, many Chinese supporters are undeterred, and they are expected to arrive in numbers that will dwarf the followers of many competing teams.

The growing presence of fans and sponsors can be linked to China’s consumer boom, while excitement for football has been spurred on by President Xi Jinping’s ambitions to make 73rdranked China a world power in the sport.

China has only qualified once for the World Cup – when it exited goalless in 2002 – but expectations are high that it will bid to hold the tournament, with 2030 and 2034 often mentioned as possibilities.

One Chinese fan, Dai Qian, said he will spend nearly $10,000 to visit Russia and watch the tournament.

“We appreciate football as an art and we like the feeling of watching live football,” said the 38-year-old, a university professor in energy engineering who will travel as part of a 400-strong Chinese tour group.

According to the latest FIFA figures, nearly 37,000 tickets out of 1.7 million went to Chinese fans, the secondlargest showing from countries that didn’t make the tournament, after the United States.