War on football? Chinese players get army drills, 'thought education'

SHANGHAI, Nov 30, 2018 ( AFP) - Chinese national squads and a top league team have packed young footballers off to military camps for drills and Marxist- style "thought education" as a campaign to promote Communist Party values spreads even into the sporting world.

Chinese fans have watched the militarisation of football with a mixture of anger and bemusement after pictures emerged of players getting their hair shaved and throwing themselves bare- chested into the snow.

The Chinese Football Association ( CFA) spirited away more than 50 under- 25 national squad players in October for several weeks of intensive army drills, swapping their football boots for combat boots and military fatigues.

The move, underlining desperation to improve the perennially underachieving Chinese national side, was particularly controversial because it meant some of China's finest young players were not involved in the final games of the league season.

A second batch of players was packed off in early November, and this week a national squad of under- 19s was set to don camouflage and head to the barracks, suggesting that the boot camps may become a fixture.

Chinese Super League (CSL) side Shanghai Shenhua -- home last year to Argentine striker Carlos Tevez -- followed suit with its under- 19 players, combining football training with marching and other aspects of an austere military life.