Guangzhou success to spark game in China

hong kong — Millions of Chinese football fans are hoping Guangzhou Evergrande can become the first Chinese team in 23 years to be crowned Asian Champions on Saturday, potentially giving a boost to the nation’s problem-riddled football system.

The Chinese Super League champions will be taking on South Korea’s FC Seoul in the second and final leg of the AFC Champions’ League - the region’s premier club tournament - in its southern home of Guangzhou, following a 2-2 draw in Seoul.

The 58,000 capacity Tianhe stadium has sold out with widespread touting of tickets as fans queued overnight for a chance to witness a potential milestone for the game in China.

Long beset by corruption, match fixing scandals and chronic underperformance; a victory for the Chinese league champions, led by Italian World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi, could be a stepping stone for the nation of 1.3 billion to rejuvenate its footballing potential and overhaul the ailing system.

“This could make history for Chinese football,” said Chen Zhongming, who helps run Guangzhou Evergrande’s fan club.

“After years of failure, a win would give encouragement. But China football still needs to change its old ways.”

An anti-corruption campaign since 2009 has jailed or pun- ished nine officials, four judges, 13 footballers or coaches and 17 club workers. Last June, two former China football chiefs Nan Yong and Xie Yalong were jailed for accepting bribes.

In recent years, the Super League’s commercialisation and infusion of highly-paid, world-class names such as Lippi and former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, alongside players like Didier Drogba have added a touch of glamour and depth.

Former England captain David Beckham was even appointed Chinese Super League ambassador in March and was mobbed by fans on a week long tour of the country in June where he spoke of his desire to inspire local children back to the game.

But institutional problems including an opaque and powerful football bureaucracy, lax oversight, poor management, piecemeal youth training schemes and widespread underground football betting rings, continue to corrode the sport’s development.

While football is one of China’s most popular sports, the national team has long punched below its weight, ranked 97th by FIFA and only once qualifying for the World Cup in 2002.

China’s leader Xi Jinping, an avid football fan, will be hoping for a Guangzhou victory, tuning in to the game on live TV alongside millions of other Chinese. —