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What are the Secrets Behind China’s Football Boom?
It’s been that time of year again in European football, when the player transfer window has opened and closed and the continent’s top players have (or in most cases have not) moved onto new clubs for big money.
Yet, as the match fixing, which in turn has engendered a sense of cynicism about football across the Chinese population.
A related concern is that some business people may now be seeking to use football as a means of moving their money into safe havens overseas. One possibility is that European football clubs could be among their targets. This is not what the diehard fans of cash-strapped European clubs will want to hear.
It is not inconceivable that the Chinese transfer fee record will again be broken before we reach the end of February. We should also expect even more headlines like these come the reopening of this summer’s transfer window. China’s football fans, its clubs, its players and agents across the globe must surely be relishing the prospect.
Longer-term though, the jury is still out on where this is all heading. Can China achieve its goals? Will the bubble burst? How will players cope with the cultural challenge of playing there? Suffice to say, the next 10 years could see a major shift in world football’s powerbase. Watching what happens off the field could therefore be more interesting than what happens on it.
Simon Chadwick is Professor of Sports Enterprise at the Centre for Sports Business, Salford University. He tweets at @Prof_Chadwick
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