GERMAN RULING IS A CHINESE PUZZLE
In England, we often hear we should learn from german football, with its cheap ticket prices, safe standing and supporter-run clubs — whose supporters always seem to agree on selling the best player to Bayern Munich, which seems strange.
Yet here’s something even stranger. next season, China’s Under 20 team will play in germany’s fourth division. It is part of a government agreement between germany and China in 2016.
The Regionalliga Sudwest has only 19 teams, so China’ s Under 20s will add balance. Clubs will receive around £15,000 to play two matches against them, although China won’t be included in the league table. Tier four is already a bizarre mix, featuring oncefamous names such as Kickers Offenbach — a Bundesliga presence as recently as 1984 and the club that produced Rudi Voller — plus the reserve teams of Kaiserslautern, Stuttgart and Hoffenheim.
Yet this hybrid format couldn’t happen here. China Under 20 could not be parachuted into league Two, no matter what agreements the Football association or Football league had struck abroad.
We’re too proud for that, and rightly so. The mix in the English game is too sincere. league Two includes Football league founders notts County, clubs such as Morecambe who have known nothing else, newly-arrived Forest green Rovers and elite teams now fallen on harder times, like Coventry and luton. Yet each club has its fan base, its proud history, and those who care would not see that devalued by a commercial arrangement, no matter how lucrative.
Equally, if China Under 20 are not part of the league table, then the league is in essence still a 19-team competition with one club playing a glorified friendly for the cash each week. Contrast this with the sense of tradition at the heart of England’s lower leagues.
The average attendance in league Two is still a creditable 4,752, a total that only two clubs in Regionalliga Sudwest can hope to attract.
Indeed, the Regionalliga Sudwest average is 1,754 — superior only to Barnet, Morecambe and accrington Stanley in league Two last year.
English football is not perfect but it is a long way from inviting Chinese kids to make up its numbers. Our game is considerably healthier than its detractors think.