OpinionPromote soccer for its real sporting benefits, not just as Xi Jinping’s vanity project
Cary Huang says it’s a shame the president’s ambition to turn China into a soccer powerhouse by 2050 is drawing attention away from efforts to address people’s real need for exercise and enjoyment
Once again, the Chinese Communist Party has demonstrated its penchant for state planning. A few weeks ago, the government unveiled its ambitious 13th five-year plan to transform China into a “moderately prosperous society” by 2020. Last week, it announced another grand plan, but with a longer time frame – turning China into a world soccer superpower by 2050.
China sets out grand plan to become world’s soccer superpower by 2050
The plan might be welcome in this soccer-loving nation; it came days after the national team narrowly avoided elimination from the qualifying stages of the 2018 World Cup, even though they still face an uphill task competing for one of four slots reserved for Asian teams.
Under the plan, the men’s national team should be in Asia’s top echelon by 2030 and among the world’s strongest by 2050.
But big questions have been asked about why soccer has received so much attention and been given such preferential treatment by the top leadership.
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Soccer has become the most-watched game in China only in recent decades, thanks to satellite broadcasting. But the “beautiful game” is far from being a popular sport for Chinese to play, due to the lack of pitches around the country, even in major cities. Table tennis is the most widely played, and is regarded as a “national sport” that symbolises character and pride. It is followed by badminton, basketball and volleyball. But none of these sports have ever received attention from the top leadership.
In economic terms, the scale of the annual 900 billion yuan (HK$10.8 billion) sporting industry, little more than 1 per cent of China’s total gross domestic product of 67 trillion yuan last year, is too small to attract interest from economic planners.