A Revolution Is Taking Place in Chinese Football

A revolution is taking place in Chinese football. A combination of government ambition and private finance has produced a series of high-profile, record breaking transfers as clubs compete to hire big-name players.

- John Duerden

In 2012, Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba signed for Shanghai Shenhua amid great fanfare in China and everywhere else. Yet majority owner Zhu Jun had an online game to promote, and a power battle with other shareholders to engage in, and he struggled to pay the stars who swiftly returned west. For some it was proof that the Middle Kingdom was not yet a place for the big stars.

This time, it is different. That’s not to say that there will not be individual issues in the much larger and more recent influx – Gervinho and Ezequiel Lavezzi may find that the far northeastern city of Qinhuangdao is much tougher to settle in compared with the cosmopolitan and  modern metropolis that is Shanghai – but this is a more sustained and sustainable wave of spending by Chinese Super League clubs.

It is also no standing start. Even a decade ago the league was nowhere near as bad as has been made out, and in recent years it has improved. With an average attendance of over 22,000 in 2015, it was already one of the most watched in the world and only just behind France and Italy. Those countries will surely be overtaken in the coming season.

The facilities are often fantastic, the stadiums large and modern, and the passion for the game palpable. Football is already the most popular sport, though basketball – buoyed by the success of Yao Ming, a Shenhua fan – has run it close in recent years.

But that is mainly because the country has been starved of success by its true love. If the world’s most populous nation could actually be a global football force... well, nobody knows what would happen, but the spending is part of a wider push to provide that opportunity.