[Voice]Football is not a one-time thing
In fact, in addition to patience, football requires determination and wisdom, especially top-level design and long-term planning that conform to the laws of football, and years of down-to-earth work and dedication.
One night, two defeats, the Olympic team 0-3, the national team 0-2. In China, being a football fan is really not a pleasant thing.
I noticed that the distant Sultan Qaboos Stadium in Muscat is still flooded with a large number of uniformed Chinese fans. They are far more numerous than Oman fans, but most of the time, they were silent – I think, it’s not because of their lack of passion, but the performance of the national football team is really uninspiring.
There are also people in the media who can’t help themselves.
After watching the last game of the national football team, everyone is generally pessimistic about the future. In fact, the next World Cup finals team will be expanded to 48, and Asia will get 8.5 places. However, in the latest national team world ranking released by FIFA, the Chinese team ranked 77th, and its ranking in Asia also dropped to 10th.
Why are people who eat football rice not optimistic about the future of Chinese football?
The reason I can think of is that Chinese football may have gone the wrong way.
For Chinese football, the fans and the media are not impatient. We have waited for 20 years, and we don’t care about waiting another four years. The problem now is that the national football team has fallen into a “dead cycle” once every four years, and the youth training is completely hopeless.
Just as the national football team was struggling in the top 12, a team with a similar fate to ours, the Canadian team, advanced to the World Cup one round earlier. Canadian football has waited 36 years for this moment.
In the world of football, the Canadian men’s football has a very general presence. Five years ago, the Canadian men’s soccer team ranked only 120th in the world, worse than the national soccer team. Canadian football is also in decline. Their women’s football team won the Olympic gold medal last year, while the men’s football team has been ridiculed and ridiculed by public opinion all the year round.
In fact, the Canadian team can rely on the host status to return to the World Cup in 2026, but they obviously do not want to wait another 4 years.
So what did the Canadian men’s soccer team do right?
The changes in Canadian football began in 2012, when Montagliani, who was a businessman, was elected as the chairman of the Canadian Football Association and began to learn from European and American professional football. In 2013, Montagliani planned to rebuild the Canadian professional league system, and a new Super League was established in 2019. The youth league system established earlier than the Super League has made countless Canadian children fall in love with football. According to 2019 data, there are 780,000 players, coaches and referees registered with the Canadian Football Federation.
Canada has also made great efforts to create a diversified football, and the addition of immigrant players and naturalized players has greatly enhanced Canada’s football strength. Thanks to the perfect youth training system, there are many excellent players in Canada who have successfully studied abroad.
Don’t forget, of course, that the Canadian men’s football team also has a world-class coach, John Hedman, the British coach who led the Canadian women’s football team to consecutive Olympic bronze medals in 2012 and 2016. While many doubt whether he can lead the men’s team to success, the Canadian Football Association has no doubts about it, and it has been used for five years.
Speaking of which, Canada’s experience on the road to the World Cup is nothing more than these: league, youth training, studying abroad, plus enough time for the coach. But people have been doing it in a down-to-earth way, without tossing, and finally bearing fruit.
So some people asked, Canada can, why can’t China?
This question is very familiar. When the Iceland team rushed into the World Cup, many people also asked this question, and the answer is not complicated – we did not follow the rules of football, and we have been tossing. If you don’t believe me, you can calculate how many coaching changes the national football team has gone through in the past 20 years, and how many presidents the Chinese Football Association has changed.
Fang Hao, a teenager who became famous in the U23 national football team, said a very good thing, “Football is not something that can be achieved in a hurry, it requires the efforts of several generations.” We think football can be achieved in a hurry, so we always revolve around the World Cup and “performance football”. In fact, in addition to patience, football requires determination and wisdom, especially top-level design and long-term planning that conform to the laws of football, and years of down-to-earth work and dedication.
Chinese football can lose, but don’t lose it for nothing. Chinese fans can also wait, but please don’t make fans wait hopelessly.
Liu Yingyu
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责编：杨帆 ]