The year was so bad for Chinese football that even its greatest success story looks more like a disaster. Eliminated, unthinkably, from the World Cup at the first hurdle, the Chinese Football Association ended 2004 unsure of when the next domestic league will begin because of a standoff with the so-called G7 group of disgruntled clubs.
Meanwhile, right on Hong Kong's doorstep a remarkable story unfolded as Shenzhen Jianlibao brought the inaugural Chinese Super League title to Guangdong. It was a first for the province and the city, achieved by a group of players who, by the end of the season, had not been paid for an incredible seven months.
On the bright side, the game needed a crisis. On face value a record haul at the Olympics suggests the rest of Chinese sport has never been in better health, but the foundations on which Olympic success has been built is a throwback to the old-style communist era sports schools.
Football is forging a different path at the forefront, as far as sport is concerned, of the free market economy. Its growth is restricted by the growth of the Chinese economy as a whole - for example, it cannot gain true value for its television rights until the market operates truly competitively - and its problems reflect those of the economy, too.
The Chinese FA can't claim it didn't have warning prior to the World Cup failure and the G7 conflict.
Four years ago Bora Milutinovic was arguing the need for China to play tough matches away from home. The lack of experience showed during a goalless debut at the 2002 World Cup finals. Milutinovic's successor, Dutch legend Arie Haan, demanded the same preparation and didn't get it. While Haan was able to guide the hosts to the final of the Asian Cup last summer, they lost 3-1 to Japan with a Koji Nakata handballed goal decisive, what was theoretically a simpler task of getting past Kuwait, Malaysia and Hong Kong and into the final round of World Cup qualifying proved beyond them.
Haan left, his contract automatically terminating itself after November's fruitless 7-0 thrashing of Hong Kong in Guangzhou, lamenting the away performances: unconvincing 1-0 wins over Hong Kong and Malaysia and a 1-0 defeat to Kuwait in a match where China were clearly the masters.