Soccer needs youth training instead of binging on big names
- By Ni Tao
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Shanghai Daily, January 27, 2014
Fig leaf for deeper mediocrity
How Chinese is their victory? A championship built entirely on capital is the last thing Chinese soccer needs. It’s just a fig leaf for deeper mediocrity.
The money splurged on big-name signings could have been used to fund training of younger players, where China has lagged far behind its neighbors.
Statistics show that China’s newly registered young footballers in the past five years are outnumbered 45 times by Japan’s. Of course, the number of kids playing football has decreased greatly, due largely to the test-oriented education system. Thus, the new and future FA chiefs need to play down money-oriented football, and promote more youth involvement.
When we lament the fact that China lacks its equivalents of Keisuke Honda of AC Milan and Shinji Kagawa of Manchester United — both world-class Japanese footballers — we should note that Japanese football has come a long way over the years.
At one time, Japanese leagues also thrived on big signings, but when that spending spree petered out, Japanese football emphasized youth training, which is the key to its success today.
Cai may have no way of influencing the education system, but he certainly can, and needs to, roll out schemes encouraging more youth participation in the game to expand the talent pool.
His lavish praise of the Guangzhou team, which cruised to victory all because of money, bodes ill for the health and development of Chinese football. The spending binge in Chinese leagues ought to be curbed to leave more room for local talent to grow and mature.
Our leagues can afford to be starless at the moment. When he looks back on his years as FA boss in the future, Cai will be proud to take credit for encouraging the right trend.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)