18 years later I think I know why at school I was almost always picked last when playing football at breaktimes in school. How embarrassing, a nation of a billion people+ and you can't find a couple of blokes who can play football? I mean smegging hell look at group G, even the North Koreans who are not exactly doing too well economically got a team into the world cup.
Hey, AC Milan lost to a HK team a few years ago I think...
ReplyDeleteBack in 2004, 2:1 I believe...
ReplyDeleteHey man - great blog you have here; it's very insightful, informative, and funny. I'm an ABC from NYC who is fairly in touch with his "mun fa." By that I mean I speak Cantonese fluently (thanks to my parents never learning English) as opposed to most ABCs who don't speak the mother tongue.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was thinking the same - how does a nation of over 1.3 billion people not participate in the World Cup? I may not be a soccer fan but it's embarassing how a nation with such a large population is unable to assemble a team and compete in the most popular sport in the world. Surely they must be able to find some players. Kim Jong-Il must have paid off FIFA to have North Korea participate.
They're not good at basketball and they'll be worse if Yao is forced to retire because of his injury. They must really love their ping pong and gymnastics!
I discovered why recently. Simply the Chinese pro footballers are not really footballers. In China like many things they usually have connections within the CCP and are assigned onto the football team calling in favors. This is similar to the UK when you could buy the titles of baron or knight.
ReplyDeleteSuch people who buy their way onto the teach generally can't play and are only interested in going on the national team for a year or two before going off and doing something else entirely. They will use the kudos gained from being on the national team as a launch pad for something else.
While other nations have pro footballers who spend their working lives playing the game and therefore get good at playing.