The View | How China’s quest to become a football powerhouse is revamping the beautiful game
China has emerged as deep-pocketed investor in what amounts to a global power grab for influence in football
If you want to understand how China is changing the world economy with international acquisitions mushrooming wherever you look, you might choose to look at chemicals, or engineering, or smart phones and e-commerce, or wind and solar power, but to be different, let’s look at football.
After all, in the lull between Portugal spluttering to victory in the Euro football championship, and Brazil’s scramble to organise the Rio Olympics on time for teams to arrive on August 5, sport is naturally on the mind. And apart from determination to win as many Olympic medals as possible (China will be sending the largest team to the Rio Olympics, no doubt determined to better the 100-medal tally they won in the 2008 Olympics at home in Beijing), it seems as if China’s business barons can’t take their mind off football.
It is under the counter rather than over the counter that China’s soccer fortunes are likely to be made in coming years
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping smiled into the selfie with Manchester City footballer Sergio Aguero in October last year, a national plan for sports promotion has been unleashed. With the aim of building China as a “great sports nation” by the time of the 2026 soccer World Cup, billions are being spent on lifting the country’s soccer. With a government strategy comparable with steel or high speed rail construction, the aim is to build a sports industry worth 5 trillion yuan by the time of the 2026 World Cup. The schools offering specialised football training are to be hoisted from 5,000 to 50,000.
To be frank, as far as soccer is concerned, China has a long way to climb. At present, the country’s national team ranks 96th worldwide, behind even North Korea. It has not qualified to compete in the World Cup since 2002. But the frenzy of local and international investment in soccer is breathtaking – and driven as strongly by private sector business leaders as much as the national plan. It will be fascinating to watch how this global grab for influence in football will impact China in the coming decade as a soccer power.
Over half of the 16 teams in the China Super League (CSL) are currently spending around 1 billion yuan a year in deals ranging from acquiring foreign players to snapping up foreign managers with the single-minded aim of lifting soccer standards nationwide. Nine of the 16 CSL teams are now managed by foreign managers.
Rather than acquiring fading international football starts, China’s leading teams are among the most aggressive competitors worldwide for top international talent. These include the Ivorian player Gervinho (also known as Gervais Lombe Yao Kouass) bought from Arsenal for US$21 million and Alex Texiera from Brazil bought by Jiangsu Suning for US$55 million, to “the Hulk” – Givanildo Vieira de Souza by Shanghai SIPG. Rivalry between the 16 teams is intense, with Shanghai SIPG, who have never won the League, clearly gunning for top slot, which has been occupied for the past five years by Alibaba-funded Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao. The hope is obviously that “the Hulk” will make the difference.
