This. is. scary. I don't want to know...
Chinese football is in the news lately, for some reason it seems foreign media can’t get enough of it this week, so here’s some of the better stories we’ve seen in the foreign (and domestic) English language media. Plus, reports on transfer rumors and the expected starting lineup against Iraq.
- We have a good idea what the lineup against Iraq will look like, expect Yang Zhi in goal with a back four of Zhang Linpeng (his first start under Camacho), Li Weifeng and Liu Jianye in the middle, and Sun Xiang. Defensive midfielders will be Zhao Xuri and Liu Jian with the attacking setup being Hao Junmin, Zheng Zhi, and Yu Hanchao, while Gao Lin will remain as the lone striker. Feng Renliang and Wu Pingfeng both appear to be injured and probably won’t feature in the 18 man roster tomorrow.
- The Independent contains an interview with Chinese media luminary Yan Qiang about how Chinese watch the English Premiership. The most interesting tidbit from the interview is Yan’s contention that the Chinese Super League gets higher tv ratings than the EPL. As neither are on national tv, this has to be based on the situation in certain markets, this correspondent wonders if perhaps Shanghai’s attendance is so low because everyone’s watching the matches from the comfort of their own home? The Guardian also has a piece on Chinese sport, focused on football, this one focused on the “potential” for the Chinese market and includes the head slappingly stupid cliche of “Go East…”
- Out of Australia, SBS has a good piece on Joel Griffiths and assures us his deal with Guoan is “95% done”. We’ll see about that, but the article is worth a read, both for the picture it sets of the pre-match atmosphere in Beijing as well as the talk of Joel’s chances of running out for the Socceroos.
- I’ve never heard of the IFFHS before, but they are doing a poll for the World’s Most Popular Player, you can go here to vote for Yang Zhi, the lone Chinese player on the list.
- We haven’t posted the first transfer post yet, but there’s already news on the managerial front, with former Spanish national team manager Javier Clemente looking very likely to sign with Shandong Luneng for a salary somewhere between 1-2 million euros. Clemente was most recently in charge of Cameroon and before that with Real Valladolid. He’s been managing for over 30 years and has won the Spanish league twice (both times with Athletic Bilbao).
- Speaking of transfers, Evergrande is already flexing its monetary muscles, rumors are that they’ve offered RMB15 million for Yu Hanchao, an offer rejected on it’s face by Liaoning, who came back asking for RMB30 million (or over RMB10 million more than Hengda paid for Player of the Year Muriqui). With the Northeastern club in the ACL next year, they will do whatever they can to keep Yu. Hengda have also offered RMB 15 million for Rong Hao and RMB10 million for Qingdao youngster Liu Jian.
- Much of Guangzhou’s search for local talent is due to the Chinese Super League decision to continue with the “4+1” rule for foreigners (i.e. 4 foreigners plus 1 Asian foreign player). Xu Jiayin shared with China Daily his frustration about this decision, though all of us at think the league did the right thing.
by bcheng
Category: China National Team, Chinese Super League, Guangzhou Evergrande
Tags: Guangzhou Evergrande, Yu Hanchao, 中超, 国足
The Independent contains an interview with Chinese media luminary Yan Qiang about how Chinese watch the English Premiership.
“The EPL had a tournament here two years ago in Beijing, the Asia trophy, and as a professional in the sports industry I’d say it wasn’t a big success, because it featured teams like the Spurs and Hull City – and they don’t attract too much attention.”
Grrrrrrr. You don’t know how lucky you are!
Just read the Independent article and was amazed when it stated that there are 14 million tennis players in China thanks to the middle class boom. I mean what the fu*k, even during the peak years of Chinese football it never even had 1 million registered players and today I believe they’re struggling to even get anything near that. For years I’ve been reading numerous articles on this website and many other simular websites which have talked about the problems of Chinese football predominantly the low football population, which was probably due to significant urbanization that saw little space for football fields, the demands of academic success brought about by the one child rule that has seen too many children spend hardly any time playing around and doing sports let alone football, however this statistic just blows all my assumptions out the window. This stat has shown that there are a significant amount of people in China not only doing sports but a) willing to pay for the significantly more expensive equipment. b) willing to pay to join a club. c) private companies and the goverment have the space and are willing to build these clubs. d) Those that do become professional are willing to earn less and work harder to achieve their goals compared to a footballer in China where even an average player can still earn decent money.
“Chinese football is in the news lately, for some reason it seems foreign media can’t get enough of it this week”
– this is a joke right?