Why soccer does not work out in China - Rowan Simons

Rowan Simons

Chinese love soccer and the ongoing World Cup is just showing that, even though China is not even playing. Unfortunately, soccer expert Rowan Simons tells CNN, the country lacks to fundamentals to become a soccer nation in the future.

CNN:

"Success in football is directly related to the population of football players," says Rowan Simons, chairman of China Club Football, one of Beijing's biggest sports networks. The club allows thousands of amateurs -- both Chinese and expatriates -- to play the game every week.

Simons has been in China, and playing football there, for 20 years. He is arguably one of the most invested people in the grassroots development of the sport there.

He says that, statistically, one great footballer will emerge out of every 200,000 players. Right now, China has anywhere between 7,000 and 50,000 kids involved in football, according to the Chinese Football Association. This compares to nearly four million in the UK.

According to these calculations, "China is likely to have one quarter of a world-class player," says Simons.

Despite the enormous pool from which to select players, growing the footballing population is an huge task. The nation may be crazy about watching the game, but when it comes to playing it, there are hesitations.

More in CNN.

Rowan Simons is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

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Money does not help Chinese football - Rowan Simons

Rowan Simons

China is paying a high price for replacing sacked national football coach Jose Antonio Camach, but no money in the world can help Chinese football, even if they can get Marcello Lippi, tells soccer expert Rowan Simons to AFP.

AFP:

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) is currently locked in compensation talks with Camacho’s lawyers which could result in them paying him more than $9 million, reports say. But despite the huge outlay needed to entice Lippi as national coach, the government-funded CFA is expected to get their man. 

“The man that the CFA really wants is Marcello Lippi,” said Rowan Simons, an author and prominent commentator on Chinese football. 

But he told AFP: “The idea that a good coach can make bad players into a good team at the world level is fanciful at best, although it is the principle that the CFA has followed faithfully for over 50 years.” Tom Byer, the head technical advisor of the CFA-administered schools football programme, agreed China had too few world-class players and said there were deep-rooted causes behind the issue. 

Only about 200,000 schoolchildren play organised football at least three times per week, he said, and the priority in China’s intensive education system is for youngsters to achieve academic success at the expense of sports, particularly as most families are prohibited from having more than one child.

More in AFP.

Rowan Simons is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

The China Weekly Hangout discussed on 27 June the upcoming (or perhaps already ongoing) cyber wars. Are the cyber wars a new cold war in a new coat? Joined by media lecturer +Paul Fox from HKU, security consultant +Mathew Hoover from Hong Kong and China-Africa scholar +Winslow Robertson from Washington DC. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra, of the China Speakers Bureau, from Lausanne, Switzerland.

 

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China's soccer ego-trip - Rowan Simons

Rowan Simons

Soccer clubs hire international players who earn several times the annual income of China's soccer clubs. Rowan Simons tries to explain what is driving the latest developments at one of the country's most popular sports in NPR.

NPR:

"China has money. It's quite prepared to pay to see the best matches in the world," says Rowan Simons, who writes about the sport and also runs soccer training programs for kids in Beijing. "Europe cannot supply China with as many top-class matches as China would like." 

With the deep pockets of their newly moneyed owners, China's anemic Super League teams have managed to score some of soccer's biggest stars over the past couple of years — most recently Didier Drogba, formerly of Chelsea. Last weekend, he made his debut for Shanghai Shenhua, which is owned by an eccentric online gaming magnate, Zhu Jun. 

Drogba's salary is unknown, but the excitable Shanghainese media have suggested he could be pocketing as much as $15 million a year, or $300,000 a week. 

"What we can say with certainty is that his salary is several times the entire revenue of the club," says Simons, pointing out that such an economic mismatch would be seen as insanity in Europe.   

And Drogba is the second big-ticket player acquired by Shenhua, after French striker Nicolas Anelka. The standard of Chinese soccer is such that it took Anelka just 40 seconds to score his first-ever Shenhua goal. The player nicknamed "The Sulk" has spent much of his stay in China griping about the level of his teammates' ball skills. 

Simons says the millions spent on players like Drogba would be better invested at the grassroots, helping young Chinese players who lack pitches and coaches, instead of on highly paid imports. 

"It's about an ego trip, it's about politics, it's about business, it's not about football," Simons says. And politics is ever-present in China, even in the world of soccer. 

That's especially been the case in recent years, since the man who will become China's next president, Xi Jinping, is known to be a huge soccer fan. 

"In China, the political factor is massive," says Simons. "There's a very strong financial incentive to make friends with politicians, and one way to do that is to spend cash to bring prestige teams over."

More in NPR.

Rowan Simons is a speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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• Vanity projects in China's soccer - Rowan Simons (chinaspeakersbureau.info)