China’s message to Premier League
The CSL is being vilified in Europe for spending astronomical sums of money on transfers – but it's time the haters started getting used to it
It was quite a defining moment for Chinese president Xi Jinping. On the final day of his state visit to the United Kingdom at the National Football Museum in Manchester, Mr Xi proudly presented to his hosts a well-crafted prototype of Cuju - the ancient ball game which originated in China over 2300 years ago and which is believed to represent the earliest form of football.
Mr Xi’s visit in October 2015 made the front pages of many national and local newspapers as he mingled with political and footballing heavyweights – taking a selfie with then UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero – and was granted a tour of the Etihad Stadium. Later he would meet with former City star Sun Jihai, a Chinese trailblazer who was just being inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame.
Little more than a year after this gratifying charm offensive, Mr Xi could never have anticipated the hostility and torrent of abuse that has been directed at Chinese football, or to be more precise, the Chinese Super League (CSL) from Europe and, particularly, England.
This hostility reached its zenith this January following the much-hyped transfers of Oscar (for a transfer fee of £52 million), Axel Witsel and Carlos Tevez to the CSL (the former pair for a combined salary of £36 million-a-year, and the latter becoming the best paid footballer in history). The players were denounced as greedy millionaires selling their souls, while China was painted as the all-powerful, evil empire threatening the purity of the beautiful game England claim to have invented.
Yes, China is changing the financial landscape of the sport and these elite footballers are raking in astronomically more money than the majority of their contemporaries at clubs in England and elsewhere. But if top-class professionals opt for these astronomical pay packets instead of careers in already-elite leagues then, to borrow the oft-quoted line from Pope Francis, “Who am I to judge?”
Condemning China for political reasons is an age-old sport but there is no rationale for the current anti-CSL rhetoric. Shanghai SIPG general manager Sui Guoyang noted in a recent media briefing that the club's senior management personally flew to Paris in a bid to impress Oscar and provided him with a comprehensive plan for future growth and dominance. Oscar, who had lost his place at Chelsea and had no offers from major European clubs, was obviously sold on the project. They also made a great effort to demonstrate just how much coach Andre Villas-Boas wanted him at SIPG.
Sui Guoyang stressed that Oscar’s burning desire to return to the Brazil national team played just as much a part in his decision to head to China as did his £400,000-a-week wages. His compatriot Paulinho, who also received plenty of brickbats himself upon joining Guangzhou Evergrande from Tottenham Hotspur in 2015, earned a recall to the Brazil fold after reviving his career in China. Beijing Guoan midfielder Renato Augusto has also become a permanent fixture in the Selecao line-up since arriving in China. Oscar will surely attempt to replicate this.
This raises the critical question of just how competitive the CSL is. Is the league really “at a level several rungs down even from Major League Soccer (MLS)”, as one respected British journalist recently sniped? Ex-Inter midfielder Fredy Guarin, now with Shanghai Shenhua, told the Chinese media that the CSL is grossly underestimated.
This raises the critical question of just how competitive the CSL is. Is the league really “at a level several rungs down even from Major League Soccer (MLS)”, as one respected British journalist recently sniped? Ex-Inter midfielder Fredy Guarin, now with Shanghai Shenhua, told the Chinese media that the CSL is grossly underestimated.
“Our league is clearly not at the level of La Liga, but I think the standard is basically similar to that of a mid-table team in Serie A,” Guarin said during an interview with Soccer News. “And I’m convinced that the CSL will become one of the best leagues in the world if the momentum continues”. Guangzhou Evergrande's top scorer Ricardo Goulart holds the same opinion, stressing that the CSL is “much more competitive” than people think.
Certainly a league that now boasts high-profile names such as Oscar, Witsel, Tevez, Hulk, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Ramires, Graziano Pelle and Jackson Martinez needs to be taken seriously. To consider it well below the MLS, where a 35-year-old David Villa was MVP for 2016, is insulting.
Another criticism thrown at China is that their pitches are of a horrendous standard and that foreigners will find little job satisfaction playing in front of subdued and indifferent crowds. This is also complete nonsense.
It is true that some pitches in the CSL are sub-standard but they are far from being terrible, and indeed many clubs are equipped with ultra-modern training facilities which have received rave reviews from several imported superstars. As for the fan engagement, official figures show that CSL attendances surged to a record high last season. The 240 games of the 2016 season drew a total of 5.8 million fans with an average gate of 24,159 per game.
These numbers put the CSL fifth in the table of the most attended football leagues in the world, according to the data collected by worldfootball.net, above Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1 and the MLS. The most followed team in the CSL remains the reigning champions Guangzhou Evergrande, with an average of 44,883 supporters per home match last term.
Though public enthusiasm for the beautiful game has rarely translated into excellent results for the Chinese national team - the passion for football shows no sign of abating. According to figures released by CCTV, China’s largest TV network, seven of the 10 most-watched programs (excluding the Olympic games) in 2016 were football matches.
About 106 million viewers tuned in to CCTV to watch China lose 3-2 to South Korea in a 2018 World Cup qualifier. In addition, TV ratings for the CSL have risen year on year. More than 284 million people watched its television broadcasts last season.
But will the bubble eventually burst given that state-funded financial backing can only last so long? Will the CSL turn into a football backwater once again, as predicted by the critics in Europe?
Though often overlooked by the western media, China is well aware of the potential dangers ahead as it aims to establish itself in the long term. People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's Communist Party, has published numerous editorials stressing that the CSL must learn to spend its money more sensibly. “The world's richest league is not necessarily the strongest and the key difference is how to use the cash” it stated in a recent special report.
Comments
Post a Comment