Opinion | Which Chinese Super League players will fans get to see at the World Cup when the league takes two months off for Russia 2018?
Limit on foreigners, countries failing to qualify and combination of one cap wonders, has-beens and never-weres means only a handful are on the plane
China’s football fans will not have any Chinese Super League matches to watch in the summer.
The normal summer break – a necessity in much of the country where temperatures are not suitable for sport – has been extended from one month to two in this World Cup year and games will stop from matchday 11 on May 20 until July 17, two days after the World Cup final in Moscow.
Many are keen to use the break as an opportunity to jump over the border and take in Russia 2018 first hand, some 100,000 Chinese visitors are expected during the tournament, and they will get to see a handful of players from the domestic top flight pulling on their national kit and going for the biggest prize in the game.
There are a number of reasons why it is no more than a handful.
The obvious one, the elephant in the room of Chinese football, is that 90-odd per cent of the players are Chinese and China is not going to the World Cup.
Then there is the fact that only 32 nations of Fifa’s members can compete this summer, so most have missed out.