Moving the Goalposts‘Adios Camacho,’ Chinese soccer still in need of succor By Yin Pumin

‘China’s national team will strive to overtake Japan and South Korea as the soccer leader in Asia within 10-15 years.”

Is it a possibility or just a dream? Whatever the case,the Chinese Football Association(CFA) set an ambitious target for the discredited men’s team on June 27.A new 10-year program was adopted at a meeting,pledging that the men’s national team will work hard to qualify for the FIFA World Cup finals in 2018 and 2022.

The plan came after the national team’s humiliating 1-5 loss to second-stringers from Thailand on June 15 in yet another blow to the tattered reputation of the Chinese men’s soccer team.Earlier in June,the team lost to Uzbekistan and the Netherlands.

The three defeats at home and the fact that the national team has only won once this year—beating Iraq in March—have not only left the public furious at the coach and players,but also led them to doubt the way of Chinese soccer development was being handled.

More than 37 percent of 150,000 Sina.com users said that the team lost because players did not try their best or have any fighting spirit.

“The coach should take some of the responsibility.However,without a competitive system,we cannot have better players or get current players to improve,and there is no supervision system for player selection,”said Ma Dexing,Deputy Editor in Chief of the ChangshabasedTitan Sports.

A scapegoat?

LOSER:Spaniard José Antonio Camacho attends a press conference after the Chinese men’s soccer team lost 1-5 to Thailand in Beijing on June 15

CAMPUS SOCCER:Primary school students in Qinhuangdao,north China’s Hebei Province,attend a football training session on April 16,2012

The embarrassing loss on June 15 has also ended the tenure of Spanish coach José Antonio Camacho.On June 24,the CFA announced that it had reached an agreement with Camacho to terminate his contract as coach of the national team.

“After analyzing the whole performance of Camacho’s squad in the previous 22 months,the Coaching Committee reckoned the Spaniard’s reign a failure,”said the CFA.The Coaching Committee is an advisory body established by the CFA on national team affairs.

With the sponsorship of Chinese real estate company Dalian Wanda Group,the CFA replaced domestic coach Gao Hongbo and signed a three-year contract with Camacho in August 2011.

Instead of making improvements,however,the Spaniard’s tenure was a series of disappointments.Shortly after his appointment,China suffered an early knockout in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.The national team lost to Brazil 8-0 in September last year,and saw its FIFA ranking slip to an all-time low of 109th in March.China ranks 95th now.

Under Camacho,China won seven matches out of 20,losing 11 and drawing two.

“He ignored the importance of ground passing,which suits the team,and had poor communication with players and the CFA,especially regarding player selection,”said Wang Hong,a Beijing-based sports commentator and former athlete.

However,Ma held a different opinion.“Camacho should take some responsibility,but firing him is again an excuse to avoid the real problems that have brought endless failures,no matter who came to coach,”he said.

Since 1992,the Chinese men’s soccer team has had 11 coaches including seven foreigners,resulting in inconsistent tactics.

Former Dutch international Arie Haan also agreed that the Chinese national team lacks consistency.

Haan was coach of the Chinese men’s team in 2003 and 2004 when they finished as runnersup at the Asian Cup in 2004.He also worked for Chinese clubs including Chongqing Lifan,Tianjin Teda and Shenyang Shenbei between 2009 and 2012.He said that he saw little progress in Chinese soccer over the last 10 years.

“There is no continuity,”Haan told Xinhua News Agency.“When I left the national team I already said that China needs to build its own identity.That may change slowly over time,but that identity must be there.”

After failing to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals,Haan was succeeded by Chinese coach Zhu Guanghu,followed by Vlado Petrovic from Serbia,then Chinese coaches Yin Tiesheng and Gao Hongbao.Camacho took the helm in 2011 but failed to carry the team through the World Cup qualifiers.

“China has good players,but they have learned little recently.With Camacho,they have a defensive coach.Dutchman Jan Olde Riekerink is coach of Under 20.It is strange to have a Spaniard as first team coach and a Dutchman as youth coach.They have very different ideas,”Haan said,adding that the Dutch always emphasize positioning.

The CFA also admitted that Camacho was not the only one to blame.“All coaching staff are responsible for unreasonable training arrangement and team management,and we are very disappointed with the players’ behavior during the 1-5 loss,”the association said in an open letter of apology released on June 24.

After the devastating defeat on June 15,the national team’s forward Gao Lin said that the Chinese team was simply weaker than their Thai opponents.Critics countered that the Thai team was a youth team and regarded as second-string.

“It’s time to reexamine the situation where the main players on the national team are from the same club and some highly paid players have passive attitudes when playing national matches.The team often looks terribly disorganized on the field,”said Jin Shan,a sports commentator.

“We all saw their superficial problems of morale,fighting spirit and that they underestimated rivals,but the CFA needs to figure out the cause,”said Wang.

CELEBRITY EFFECT:Former England captain David Beckham,now the ambassador for Chinese soccer,greets teenage soccer players when visiting a middle school in Beijing on March 20

A lame system

Netizens have joked that anyone can point out problems in Chinese soccer,but“institutional degradation”is the ultimate one,caused by corruption and poor youth training systems.

An online survey with more than 37,000 participants showed that more than half of those polled are not surprised by the June 15 defeat,since the long history of fraud and corruption at the club level has held Chinese soccer teams back from making any real progress.

China cracked down on soccer corruption in 2009.In the following three years,a total of 58 people involved in corruption and match-fixing,including CFA officials,senior club executives,coaches,players and referees,were brought down.Thirty-three of them,including former CFA chiefs Nan Yong and Xie Yalong,who are both serving 10-and-a-half year jail sentences for taking bribes,were banned for life from soccer-related activities,and 25 were banned for five years.

It has had a positive effect,but nepotism,bribery and match-fixing are still pervasive at the local level,Wang said.

“Age fraud starts from high school,and it’s an open secret that schools hire professional players as ‘external aids’ for campus competitions to make officials happy,”she said.

Former CFA official Lang Xiaonong recently proposed a five-point reform plan in his blog,calling for improving the management system of Chinese soccer,developing multi-level leagues including youth league matches,and putting more effort into cultivating young players.

However,the situation today is not optimistic.There are less than 10,000 Under-12 players registered in China,according to official statistics.In Japan,a country with around 10 percent of China’s population,the number is more than 300,000.

China had 4,000 private clubs in the late 1990s,but only dozens now remain,said Liu Jiangnan,President of Evergrande Soccer School in south China’s Guangdong Province.

Few Chinese Super League and China League One clubs have complete four-or five-level talent training systems,and even extravagant clubs like two-time top league champion Guangzhou Evergrande neglect training of young reserve players.

The shrinking soccer population and lagging training system are considered by former England captain David Beckham to be the major problems facing the sport in China.“The foundation construction might take 10 years or longer,but that’s imperative,”the ambassador for Chinese soccer told national broadcaster China Central Television on June 25.

Jin Zhiyang,the former coach of Beijing Guoan Club,believes that only“campus soccer”can redeem Chinese soccer.

“Playing soccer doesn’t mean giving up on education if we take training back to campuses and establish a solid system to select children in different age groups and really improve facility construction.That could change the sport in 10 years,”Jin said.

The CFA,in conjunction with the General Administration of Sport and the Ministry of Education,already has a program in place designed to develop soccer within schools.The China School Soccer Program covers some 90 cities and is conducted in thousands of schools across the country.

Youth development expert Tom Byer,renowned in Japan for his role in the development of a generation of male and female soccer players,has been hired as a head technical advisor to the program.

“This is a 10-year program aimed at all level of schools and universities,”said Byer,who claims that the difference between the best and worst players in China is huge.

“Youth development is a marathon not a sprint.The good news is that in the beginning,the Chinese Government was imposing its will on the cities and schools but now the demand is so great,numbers had to be capped,”Byer said.