On a hot, humid Thursday night in Saitama, China’s national football team hit its lowest ebb.
With a minute left on the clock and trailing Japan 6-0, Chinese defenders were likely wishing for the sweet relief of the final whistle.
But Japan’s Takefusa Kubo was not feeling charitable. After watching his team-mates toy with their opponents for a while, he received a pass on the edge of the Chinese box and rammed home Japan’s seventh goal.
The ball rocketed into the roof of the net, and the man known as “Japanese Messi” condemned China to their worst-ever defeat in a World Cup qualifier.
The 7-0 spanking in September – described as “rock-bottom” by a Shanghai-based newspaper – followed a year-long line of humiliating defeats which included losses to Oman, Uzbekistan and Hong Kong.
But worse was to come.
A week later dozens of players, coaches and administrators were arrested for gambling, match-fixing and bribery as part of a two-year probe into corruption in the domestic game.
And the defeats have continued. On Tuesday, Australia beat China 2-0 in Hangzhou – cementing them at the bottom of their World Cup qualifying group.
It wasn’t long ago that China had dreamed of becoming a footballing superpower.
The world’s largest population, a thriving economy and a determined Communist Party led by an avid football fan, President Xi Jinping. What could go wrong?
Xi Jinping’s three wishes
When Xi came to power in 2012, his love for the sport spurred a drive to reform and improve Chinese football. His dream, he once said, was for China to qualify for the World Cup, host it and, ultimately, win it. These were his “three wishes”.
But a decade later, even Xi seemed to have lost the faith. While making small talk with Thailand’s prime minister on the sidelines of an international summit in 2023, the Chinese president was heard saying that China had “got lucky” in a recent victory against Thailand.
“When China’s government puts its mind to something, it very rarely fails,” says Mark Dreyer, a Beijing-based sports writer. “Look at electric vehicles, look at the Olympics. Practically any sector you can think of, China is right up there.”
But football, it seems, could not thrive in the grip of the Communist Party.
A key government report in 2015 noted that The Chinese Football Association (CFA) must have “legal autonomy,” and should be “independent” of the General Administration of Sport (GAS).
Even Xi admitted that if China wanted to succeed, then the Party would have to do what it seldom does: let go.
