In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping went to a business that makes humanoid robotics. There he drifted a concept to fix the country's woeful males's soccer group.
"Can we have robots sign up with the team?" Xi was priced estimate as stating on the site of Zhiyuan Robotics.
It might be far too late. China will run out World Cup qualifying if it stops working to beat Indonesia on Thursday. Even a triumph may only delay the departure.
What's the problem? China has 1.4 billion people, the world's second largest economy and won 40 Olympic gold medals in 2015 in Paris to tie the United States. Why can't it find 11 elite guys's soccer players?
The federal government touches every element of life in China. That top-down control has assisted China become the largest manufacturer of everything from electronic devices to shoes to steel.
It has actually attempted to run soccer, but that stiff governance hasn't worked.
"What soccer reflects is the social and political issues of China," Zhang Feng, a Chinese journalist and analyst, tells The Associated Press. "It ´ s not a free society. It doesn't have the team-level trust that enables gamers to pass the ball to each other without fretting."
Zhang argues that politics has actually stalled soccer's growth. And there's added pressure since Xi's a huge fan and has promised to resuscitate the video game in your home. Soccer is a world language with its "own grammar," states Zhang, and China does not speak it.
"In China, the more focus the leader places on soccer, the more anxious the society gets, the more power the bureaucrats get, and the more corrupt they become," Zhang includes.
After China beat Thailand 2-1 in 2023, Xi joked with Srettha Thavisin, the Thai prime minister at the time. "I feel luck was a big part of it," Xi stated.
The consensus is clear. China has too few quality players at the yard roots, excessive political disturbance from the Communist Party, and there's excessive corruption in the local game.
Wang Xiaolei, another popular Chinese commentator, suggests that soccer clashes with China's top-down governance and the focus on rote knowing.
"What are we finest at? Dogma," Wang wrote in a blog site in 2015. "But football can not be dogmatic. What are we worst at? Inspiring ingenuity, and cultivating enthusiasm."
The current chapter in China's abysmal guys's soccer history was a 7-0 loss last year to geopolitical rival Japan.
"The truth that this defeat can happen and individuals aren ´ t that shocked - in spite of the historical bitterness - just illustrates the issues facing football in China," says Cameron Wilson, a Scot who has actually operated in China for 20 years and written thoroughly about the game there.
China has actually certified for just one males's World Cup. That was 2002 when it went scoreless and lost all three matches. Soccer's governing body FIFA puts China at No. 94 in its rankings - behind war-torn Syria and ahead of No. 95 Benin.
For point of view: Iceland is the smallest nation to reach the World Cup. Its latest population estimate is almost 400,000.
The site Soccerway tracks worldwide football and doesn't show a single Chinese gamer in a leading European league. The national group's best gamer is forward Wu Lei, who bet 3 seasons in Spain's La Liga for Espanyol. The club's bulk owner in Chinese.
The 2026 World Cup will have a field of 48 teams, a huge increase on the 32 in 2022, yet China still might not make it.
China will be eliminated from qualification if it loses to Indonesia. Even if it wins, China must likewise beat Bahrain on June 10 to have any hope of advancing to Asia's next certifying stage.
Englishman Rowan Simons has actually spent almost 40 years in China and gained fame doing tv commentary in Chinese on English Premier League matches. He also wrote the 2008 book "Bamboo Goalposts."
China is gaining from reforms over the last decade that placed soccer in schools. But Simons argues that soccer culture grows from volunteers, civil society and club companies, none of which can thrive in China since they are possible oppositions to the rule of the Communist Party.
"In China at the age of 12 or 13, when kids go to middle school, it ´ s called the cliff," he says. "Parents might permit their kids to play sports when they ´ re more youthful, however as quickly as it concerns intermediate school the academic pressure is on - things like sport pass the wayside."
To be fair, the Chinese women's group has actually done better than the males. China ended up runner-up in the 1999 Women's World Cup however has actually faded as European teams have actually risen with integrated expertise from the guys's game. Spain won the 2023 Women's World Cup. China was knocked out early, damaged 6-1 by England in group play.
China has actually achieved success targeting Olympic sports, a few of which are reasonably unknown and count on repetitive training more than imagination. Olympic team sports like just one medal. So, like many nations, China concentrates on sports with multiple medals. In China's case it's diving, table tennis and weight-lifting.
"For young individuals, there's a single worth - screening well," states Zhang, the commentator and journalist. "China would be OK if playing soccer were just about bouncing the ball 1,000 times."
Li Tie, the nationwide group coach for about 2 years beginning in January 2020, was in 2015 sentenced to twenty years in prison for bribery and match repairing. Other leading administrators have actually also been accused of corruption.
The graft likewise extended to the domestic Super League. Clubs spent millions - maybe billions - on foreign skills backed by lots of state-owned organizations and, before the collapse of the housing boom, real-estate designers.
The poster kid was Guangzhou Evergrande. The eight-time Super League champs, when coached by Italian Marcello Lippi, was expelled from the league and disbanded previously this year, not able to pay off its financial obligations.
Zhang says entrepreneurs purchased expert soccer groups as a "political homage" and pointed out Hui Ka-yan. The embattled realty designer financed the Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club and utilized soccer to win favor from politicians.
Residential or commercial property giant Evergrande has actually accumulated debts reported at $300 billion, reflective of China ´ s battered residential or commercial property sector and the basic health of the economy.
"China ´ s failure at the worldwide level and corruption throughout the video game, these are all factors that lead moms and dads away from letting their kids get involved," says Simons, who founded a youth soccer club called China Club Football FC.
"Parents take a look at what ´ s going on and concern if they desire their kids to be involved. It ´ s sad and discouraging."
Wade reported from Tokyo and Tang from Washington.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer