China; the coming power in world football?

http://www.economist.com/news/china...-players-has-political-aim-too-patriotic-goal

Who knew that China's President, Mr Xi, was a follower of football? Or that China's top league outspent the Premier League in January?

With 50,000 football academies planned, I predict a World Cup win by 2030.

Vin

 

China actually wants one before then. I read somewhere that the planning is for 2026.

 

It won't happen by 2030, 2050 would be a push even. They're still not even close to qualifying for a World Cup.

 

Leicester...........

I think you are right but don't write anyone or anything off. A country that size with that much money and that much commitment............

 

everyone else will be ****ed, they have a talent pool as big as Europe or South America with the money and will to make it happen, by 2025 the first generation will be coming through.
Look at Iceland.

 

I can't really see it. Hasn't the USA been the coming power in world football since the 1970s?

More chance of England winning a World Cup by 2030 than China.

 

Leicester were 1 of 20 teams with a chance of winning the Premier League. China have to build a whole generation of kids that can dedicate their time to football as oppose to academic studies, and then hope they can develop around 20 players that are good enough to play in Europe.

It's not like the Olympics where they can focus on specific medals to win, no doubt they're commited, but the country is far too big to expect any major success in the next 20 years.

 

You can train children to be highly skilled if you start early enough, but you can't buy experience. They need to produce talented players and hope they get picked by big clubs abroad to work under top coaches and get that experience. Not a short term aim.

 

China simply isn't a football culture.

Imagine if the UK somehow became the richest country in the world overnight, and then David Cameron decided that by 2026, we would have a stronger basketball league than the NBA and a better national basketball team than USA.

Exactly.

 

I don't think they'll challenge the Premier League any time soon. More likely they'll be a retirement home for footballers like the MLS is.

I can imagine that if China invested in academies now they'd have a damned good squad in about twenty years time, due to size of population and resources.

 

A chance for Ralph to get us involved with offers of our expertise!

 

He'd certainly keep the interpreters busy. For hours and hours.

 

They're going for a level of player that the MLS generally can't compete with due to salary caps. A pre-retirement home if you will, for players aged 27-31.