Ten years on, the Chinese Football Academy has spent billions of dollars and invited world famous coaches to tutor youngsters, but to no avail.In 2016, the CFA sought to revitalize the local leagues, shouting slogans of being among the world's sixth largest leagues, sparing no expense in signing up retired celebrities such as Paulinho, the Hulk and Carrasco.
At one point in time, Chinese clubs were signing investment signings that rivaled those of the big five league giants. Behind these huge investments was a debt bubble that eventually burst. Some of the teams were unable to pay their players' salaries and went bankrupt, while young players were not trained and fell victim to the Chinese Super League's gold-dollar bubble.
On the contrary, in Japanese and Korean soccer, overseas players are springing up. Currently, Japan has 451 overseas players, while South Korea has 330. They have accumulated a wealth of experience in the European game, and finally in the World Cup to shine, to win the global respect. Chinese soccer, once again, can only sit in front of the TV to watch the glory of others.
[It's not scary to fall behind, the key is to see hope]
The mockery of the Western media has left Chinese fans speechless and outspoken! Falling behind is not scary, the key is to see hope. Today's Chinese soccer, led by Chen Xuyuan, seems to have only one chicken feather left. Since the 2009 anti-gambling and anti-blackmail action, 13 years have passed, Chinese soccer is still stuck in the anti-gambling and anti-blackmail quagmire.
The erosion of gold-dollar soccer has disfigured the Chinese men's soccer team. Nowadays, most of the practitioners only consider how to make money (with a few exceptions). Even former national team coach Li Tie is suspected of serious offenses, and former national team goalkeeper Zhang Lu was arrested. They are all suspected of being involved in match-fixing, and Li Tie has hundreds of millions of dollars in his personal bank account. These people know the law and have corrupted Chinese soccer.
Li Tie and Zhang Lu are just the tip of the iceberg. There are more people behind the scenes who are secretly enriching themselves. When soccer is equated with money, where is the future of Chinese soccer? In the past ten years, the failure of the investment of gold dollar soccer is not terrible. What's scary is that the whole soccer environment has changed, and the original purpose of soccer has been forgotten. Everyone just wants to make money, this is the most worrying place. Nowadays, these retired players are devoting themselves to youth training, but they only want to make money.
Will this anti-gambling and anti-mafia operation 2.0 save Chinese soccer? No one knows! Because we have been down this road before and have been looking forward to the rise of Chinese soccer. Nowadays, Chinese soccer is nothing. We hope this is not a cycle, but a new chapter for Chinese soccer.
