Wei targets clean-up in three years
Source: Agencies |
April 8, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE negative perceptions of Chinese football will begin to change in a year and the whole game will be put on the right path in three years, said Wei Di, the man charged with dragging the sport out of its present morass.
Soccer in China has suffered years of misery and violence on the pitch and corruption off it, culminating in a series of match-fixing scandals over the last five months that have left it reeling.
Wei, who took over at the Chinese Football Association in January when the previous chief Nan Yong was arrested, is confident he can quickly restore the credibility of the game, if not immediately improve the quality of play.
"I believe after about one year we can make a new impression, an initial turnaround. After two to three years I hope we can erase all the negative impressions," Wei said yesterday. "But improving playing standards in Chinese football isn't just a two or three-year job."
China is ranked 84th in the world and failed to reach the final qualifying stages for June's World Cup in South Africa after finishing bottom of its third round group.
Wei's three-point plan involves tightening up supervision of the professional leagues, improving the image of the CFA and, most importantly, broadening the game's grassroots.
The 55-year-old was China's head of water sports, calmly plotting how to turn three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics into five in London, when Nan and 20 other soccer officials were caught up in the anti-corruption crackdown.
"Obviously, I felt huge pressure," he said. "There were so many urgent problems to solve, the image of football had been so badly damaged, the standard of football had declined so much. How would I rebuild a bright image of football? How could we make children love football again? It was such a difficult mission."
Wei believes the involvement of government is not the problem but the solution to the current ills.
"To separate government and football is the direction we are working towards but, at the moment, the involvement of government is a guarantee of the orderliness and a protection from fundamental problems," he said. "If we entirely copy the system of the countries with centuries of market economy, China will be completely chaotic. There will be even more match-fixing and gambling," he added.
He has promised open and democratic decisions at the CFA, forums for the public to express their opinions and increased independence for the Chinese Super League.
Wei travels to Zurich today for his first meeting with FIFA President Sepp Blatter who, he said, was "very concerned" about the state of the game in China. He also hopes to elicit help for the "Campus Football" scheme, an initiative backed by US$6 million cash that aims to expose a million children a year to the joys of football.
"The professional league is the stem of the tree while the national teams are the fruits on it. But beautiful fruits can attract more attention and encourage children to participate."
Wei said the fruits currently on China's tree make qualifying for the 2014 World Cup "difficult" but he is convinced his country will become a power in the game.
"If I fail, I will take responsibility," he said. "But Chinese football will succeed one day."
(Reuters)
Soccer in China has suffered years of misery and violence on the pitch and corruption off it, culminating in a series of match-fixing scandals over the last five months that have left it reeling.
Wei, who took over at the Chinese Football Association in January when the previous chief Nan Yong was arrested, is confident he can quickly restore the credibility of the game, if not immediately improve the quality of play.
"I believe after about one year we can make a new impression, an initial turnaround. After two to three years I hope we can erase all the negative impressions," Wei said yesterday. "But improving playing standards in Chinese football isn't just a two or three-year job."
China is ranked 84th in the world and failed to reach the final qualifying stages for June's World Cup in South Africa after finishing bottom of its third round group.
Wei's three-point plan involves tightening up supervision of the professional leagues, improving the image of the CFA and, most importantly, broadening the game's grassroots.
The 55-year-old was China's head of water sports, calmly plotting how to turn three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics into five in London, when Nan and 20 other soccer officials were caught up in the anti-corruption crackdown.
"Obviously, I felt huge pressure," he said. "There were so many urgent problems to solve, the image of football had been so badly damaged, the standard of football had declined so much. How would I rebuild a bright image of football? How could we make children love football again? It was such a difficult mission."
Wei believes the involvement of government is not the problem but the solution to the current ills.
"To separate government and football is the direction we are working towards but, at the moment, the involvement of government is a guarantee of the orderliness and a protection from fundamental problems," he said. "If we entirely copy the system of the countries with centuries of market economy, China will be completely chaotic. There will be even more match-fixing and gambling," he added.
He has promised open and democratic decisions at the CFA, forums for the public to express their opinions and increased independence for the Chinese Super League.
Wei travels to Zurich today for his first meeting with FIFA President Sepp Blatter who, he said, was "very concerned" about the state of the game in China. He also hopes to elicit help for the "Campus Football" scheme, an initiative backed by US$6 million cash that aims to expose a million children a year to the joys of football.
"The professional league is the stem of the tree while the national teams are the fruits on it. But beautiful fruits can attract more attention and encourage children to participate."
Wei said the fruits currently on China's tree make qualifying for the 2014 World Cup "difficult" but he is convinced his country will become a power in the game.
"If I fail, I will take responsibility," he said. "But Chinese football will succeed one day."
(Reuters)
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