Opinion | Why realising China’s grand football plans will require much more than money and policy
From learning styles to parents who don’t want their children making a career in the sport, China has a lot of challenges to work through before its ambitious football scheme starts scoring goals
With such big ideas, the coherence of China’s plan, its ongoing investment in the grassroots, and a strategic approach to talent development are all important if football is to become a success.
A challenge for China, though, is that it does not have a culture of developing football talent, leaving one to ask where it will come from. Although the country has ambitious plans for the amount of people it wants to be playing football, and is hiring some of the world’s best coaches, the game still faces some significant challenges before it can reach this target figure and then train them to compete with the world’s best teams.
Parental attitudes are the most obvious impediment to Chinese football’s long-term development, at least when it comes to young people playing the sport. In short, many Chinese parents do not want their children playing football, instead preferring them to become doctors, engineers, or even government workers.