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Ki warning on China cash splash
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SOUTH Korea captain Ki Sung-yueng warned that China’s massive spending on foreign players didn’t guarantee international success, citing the cautionary tale of England’s moribund national team.
Italy’s Graziano Pelle reportedly became one of the world’s highest paid players when he joined Shandong Luneng from Southampton, in one of the latest coups for the cash-rich Chinese Super League.
Swansea City’s Ki, speaking after South Korea’s 3-2 World Cup qualifying win over China late on Thursday, said China’s spending spree had helped raise standards in Asian football.
However, he said a star-studded domestic league didn’t mean China would achieve its elusive goal, craved by fans and football officials alike, of success on the international stage.
“It’s good for Asian football that there is so much investment in Chinese football it helps Asian football develop and it is good for the Chinese Super League,” said Ki.
But the Korean added: “Signing good foreign players is no guarantee that the country’s football will develop.
“There are many good players from all over the world in the English Premier League but the results of the England national team are not good.”
Premier League clubs splashed out a record 1.17 billion pounds (US$1.55 billion) in the July-August transfer window, putting other top leagues in the shade.
But England, which hasn’t reached a major final in 50 years, flopped embarrassingly at the June-July European Championships, crashing out in the last 16 after a shock defeat to tiny Iceland.
China has only ever made one World Cup, in 2002, and its hopes of playing the next edition in Russian in 2018 took a knock with Thursday’s defeat in Seoul.
However, there were positive signs for China as it fought back from 0-3 down — including an early own goal — and had South Korea hanging on for its win.
China’s football boss Gao Hongbo said his players could take heart ahead of Tuesday’s home game against Iran, another of Asia’s heavyweights.
“We can take confidence from our performance,” said Gao. “They have more experience than us. We showed determination to come back at the end and going forward, this will help us a lot.”
Meanwhile, Japan has lodged a formal protest over a controversially disallowed goal which consigned it to a 1-2 World Cup qualifying defeat to UAE in Saitama, an official said yesterday.
TV replays showed Takuma Asano’s shot crossed the line in mid-air before being clawed away by goalkeeper Khalid Eisa, but the goal was missed by Qatari referee Abdulrahman al-Jassim.
It turned out to be pivotal for Japan, which was trailing 1-2 at the time and stood to escape with a draw rather than a damaging home defeat.
“We filed a protest ... immediately after the game, with a claim that the shot should have been judged as a goal,” Japan Football Association spokesman Futoshi Nagamatsu said.
The Asian Football Confederation confirmed it had received a complaint which was also sent to FIFA, which oversees World Cup qualifiers. There was no immediate comment from the global body.
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