◆ 2022 World Cup Qatar ◆
[한중일 톺아보기-101]
WANDA (Wanda), Mengniu, Vivo, Hisense (Hisense)…
These are the letters that are often caught on screen during the Qatar World Cup match. These are companies representing China, and they are sponsoring this competition following the Russian competition in 2018. Chinese football has shown excellent skills that have never progressed to the finals for 20 years since progressing for the first time ever to the finals of the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, but as a water owner, he is ‘top level’. The International Football Federation (FIFA) selects official sponsors called ‘partners’ and ‘World Cup sponsors’ to raise the hosting costs, as Chinese companies are the largest among the sponsors included here. Chinese companies account for 3 out of every 7 sponsor companies, including 1 partner company. Chinese companies paid $1.4 billion in sponsorship fees for this event, beating American companies ($1.1 billion) and coming first for the second time in a row.
In fact, the history of Chinese companies to become World Cup sponsors is short. In 2014, when a corruption scandal broke out in relation to FIFA’s host bid, many sponsors fell away, and when FIFA’s financial difficulties worsened, Chinese companies filled the empty seats. For FIFA, World Cup sponsor fees are an important source of revenue, accounting for around 30% of annual income along with broadcasting rights. The interests of Fifa, which was suffering from financial difficulties, coincided with Chinese companies looking to increase their reputation through the world’s biggest sporting event.
Even stadiums, buses, supplies and equipment are made in China… “Everything except the football team is there”
Lusail Stadium, where the closing ceremony and finals will take place, was also built by China Railway Construction Group (中國鐵建) with local Qatari companies. In this regard, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, “In addition to the stadium, Chinese companies also participated in the construction of solar power generation.”
Yutong Bus, a Chinese electric bus company, provided 1,500 vehicles, and Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, known as the world’s largest producer of miscellaneous goods, produces and supplies various items such as official World Cup matches and whistles. In response, the Global Times, the sister newspaper of the People’s Daily, made a fuss, saying, “From stadiums to buses, air conditioners, and other facilities, there is nothing China has not touched.” China CCTV reported that two giant pandas sent to Qatar welcomed the audience while shining the red five-star flag of China during the opening ceremony.
However, no matter how many companies show their presence, people say that a World Cup without a football team is ultimately meaningless. A Shanghai citizen shook his head, saying, “I don’t want to talk about the World Cup without a Chinese team,” while on Weibo, there was a self-deprecating lament, saying, “Chinese companies and products are all available, but only the Chinese football team is missing. ” Foreign Policy (FP), an American diplomatic magazine, also pointed out, “There are Chinese companies in this World Cup, but there are no Chinese players and fans,” and “China is isolated from sports of the degree foremost.”
Xi ‘football fanatic’ shouts ‘football progress’, but… Chinese football is ‘immobile’
President Xi Jinping, who formalized his third consecutive term last month, is a self-proclaimed soccer fan. In 2008, when he was the country’s vice president, a photo was released of him kicking a ball at the Qinhuangdao Olympic Stadium in Hebei Province, and in 2011, he said, “China’s three dreams are to host the World Cup, in advance of the finals, and win.” It is also known that a picture hung in Xi’s office during his visit to Ireland in 2012.
He is very interested in football and has been injecting ‘Gukppong’ to the Chinese people by shouting ‘the great revival of the Chinese nation’. For this reason, from the beginning of his reign, he has been directing the development of football by mobilizing a powerful financial power. In 2016, he presented a specific timetable to conquer Asian football by 2030 and achieve the Chinese dream, and by 2050 to become the best football player in the world.
Chinese people are also very interested in football. The Chinese people’s love for football is second only to their favorite sport, basketball. The number of people watching football broadcasts alone is close to 200 million, and due to restrictions on movement due to the corona blockade, it has dropped sharply since the last Russian tournament, but only 7,000 tickets for the game bought by Chinese people during this tournament. .
China, which has abundant human resources thanks to its large population and has invested heavily in sports based on rapid economic growth, has achieved good results every time in various sports events such as the Olympic Games and the Asian Games. However, it is popular and money is spent, but it is not good, so China’s football skills are said to be one of the four wonders of the world.
Reasons why China can’t play football, corruption, unique individualism, etc.
There are many analyzes of why China can’t play football, but I’ll pick three big ones.
First of all, they paid huge salaries to bring excellent foreign players to their home league, but this did not lead to an improvement in the skills of domestic players. Regarding Chinese football, K-League Gangwon FC coach Choi Yong-soo said, “Although it is possible to bring in excellent foreign players and improve the club’s performance in a short period of time, the performance of the national team is very different. Astronomical money was invested to call foreign players, but in the process, Chinese players were treated too much compared to their skills, and there is an analysis that this rather hinders Chinese players from foreign challenges. As a result, from 2019, we tried to naturalize a large number of foreign players, such as those from Brazil, but this strategy, which had short-term results in mind, failed to advance to the World Cup finals.
China’s unique individuality is also cited as a factor. Football is a representative team sport, and as 11 players play, you often have to cover your own position as well as other positions depending on the situation. It can be said that there is more need for the attitude of giving up and helping the opportunity that has come to yourself than other sports. However, it is argued that this type of team play and sacrifice does not fit well with the Chinese mentality of “I don’t care what happens to other people besides me”.
There is also the influence of corruption which is particular to the communist bloc. Match-fixing, bribing referees, as well as widespread corruption in the process of appointing players have been discussed for a long time. Since the 2010s, there has been a move in China to benchmark Europe and grow step by step from childhood, but corruption has also emerged in the process of selecting players. It is evaluated that it is difficult for really talented players to be treated properly and grow as there are many cases of luring and pushing with bribes or guanxi (關系). Former Japanese national team coach Takeshi Okada, who took the baton of Zhejiang Lucheng in the Chinese Premier League, said, “In China, players with power and authority do not receive serious punishment even if they do illegal things. He pointed out that these factors are hindering the development of Chinese football. “
Series of bankruptcies in Chinese Premier League clubs… Chinese football influenced by politics
In the final World Cup qualifiers in February, China lost 1-3 to group bottom Vietnam and failed to advance to the finals. It was almost the first time that China lost to Vietnam in football, and their performance seemed to have deteriorated further than in the Russian tournament in 2018. In the background, there is a crisis that the Chinese professional league is facing.
It is now difficult to find foreign players in the first division of Chinese professional football, the ‘Super League’, which was crowded with foreigners in the past. At one time, the Super League was evaluated as a football platform representing Asia with its financial power, but many clubs went bankrupt before and after the Corona 19 event and are walking the path of collapse. The winning team in 2020, Jiangsu Suning, faced an embarrassing situation when it was disbanded a few months after winning the title due to the financial difficulties of the club’s parent company, and the chairman of parent company Tianjin Tianhai was arrested for illegal activities and the club was arrested. crashed too. Last May, Chongqing Liangjiang also delayed the payment of player salaries due to financial difficulties, and eventually announced its dissolution. 2013 and 2015 AFC Champions League winner Guangzhou Hengda (Evergrande) is also rumored to be collapsing due to the bankruptcy of parent company Hengda Group.
In this process, a Chinese ‘Exodus’ of high-paid foreign players appeared. The market value of the Super League has also plummeted. Mark Dryer, a Chinese sports industry analyst, said, “For about five years after 2016, there was a boom in the Chinese football world with a huge amount of money flowing in, and then the bubble suddenly burst and bankruptcies followed one after the other. I’ve never heard of a football club going bankrupt so suddenly,” he said. Support from state-owned enterprises has also fallen. He analyzed, “This is because the political gains that can be expected from supporting football have disappeared.” At some point, it became impossible to find President Xi talking about football in public.
More worrying is the absence of fans. Since 2020, when the corona crisis began, Super League matches have been held almost without spectators. No player wants to play in an empty stadium. Professional sports cannot exist without fans. Because of this, the International Football Players Association (FIFPRO) recently warned players to refrain from signing contracts with Chinese clubs.
A short time ago, it was reported that the former coach of the Chinese national team, who was suddenly dismissed, was under investigation. As a result, there was speculation that the world was enjoying the World Cup, but they were the only ones shouting zero corona and trying to find a ‘scapegoat’ to turn people’s anger against the reality of self-harm. Chinese authorities are even censoring the appearance of spectators taking off their masks and enjoying the World Cup relay broadcast for fear of provoking opposition to Zero Corona. As long as the purpose of enjoying and nurturing football is buried in political logic, the day when Chinese football is active in Asia as well as the world is likely to be far in the future.
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