China Law Blog - China Soccer As China Business Metaphor? - Comments

Justin Liu

Dan — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:08:49 -0800

Respectively sir, this is your pet theory. The variable of skill is a function of the amount of money being injected into the sport, first year econ tells us that much. China can catch up on sports where development of the sport is limited to a handful of enthusiast but where big money/high public interest is involved the bar is set higher. Think about it, basketball, soccer, football, hockey what do they have in common? wide spread public interest/money.

And why is china's woman's program catching faster? less funding for woman's sports in the west.

You are repeating some tired stereotype of Chinese un-inventiveness and inability be creative. I hate to trod out another tired cliche to counter yours but think the compass, paper, printing, etc......

robertb

Dan — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:08:49 -0800

You're right to link Chinese sports with the Chinese education system. Sports in China are completely diferent from sports in the U.S or U.K.. China's sports system is not even close to the club system in the U.K. or high school / college system in the U.S. Athletic talent in China, whenever it gets identified and tracked for professional development, is usually chanelled into the provincial P.E. colleges and Olympics-specific events development. Success in those programs depends on the strength of individual development and individual psychology. In such an environment, there is no reason or opportunity for developing a team psychology.

For such a reputedly "collective" society, it can be shocking for outsiders to realize that it is so "individualist" in reality.

anon

Dan — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:08:49 -0800

Spot on Dan.....The blog is 100% correct and is a great correlation to the business world and managing talent here. Like you said, a great point guard will be creative and take the heat for the failure. But 5000 years of Chinese history and culture has brow beat innovation out of them for fear the "boss" or "elder" might get angry at them and lose face. I play rugby here in China and the same can be said about our great sport. It is a team game of 15 players that required not only team work, but individual flare and risk taking. Certainly the Chinese teams can do all the "set pieces" very well and are very well drilled at the breakdowns, etc, but all of them lack that individual play making that is required at time in the game to make a big break or turn the game around. In the office, the same thing happens, they can do all the "set pieces" well, but ask them to be creative or work outside the box to get a deal sealed or a project done and if all falls apart.

Elizabeth

Dan — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:08:49 -0800

Fun post for World Cup time. I heard two things about soccer in China in addition to what MLF reports. First, the soccer leagues are run by a commercial entity - the Chinese Football Association, which is more concerned with money. To the extent that the state is involved, it provides a dueling directive, confusing the leagues further. LA Times reported on this: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/19/world/la-fg-china-soccer-20100619

Second, they say that there is loads of corruption in the sport, much more so then any other sport. Check out this article: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/19/world/la-fg-china-soccer-20100619

Personally, I think for a country to rise up in a short amount of time to dominate the summer Olympics like China did, it is a lot easier to do for individual sports - training individual athletes - like divers, gymnasts, etc. Even for the few sports where there is more than one person, it's usually just two people. But for team sports, I think that is much harder to build up in a short amount of time.

But none of these reasons explain why there isn't some soccer super star like Yao Ming, that would be exported to Brazil or some place to play with a better team.

Joseph

Dan — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:08:49 -0800

China actually has some really great sports programs geared towards developing elite athletes. Just look at their gymnastics. Those kids leave their normal lives behind and travel far away at young ages to train. I don't think the same couldn't be done for soccer. But I think the real problem here is in your second point: the nature of their coaching. They tend to like and excel at sports that are incredibly repetitive and soccer isn't always like that. They also don't put much of a premium on players thinking for themselves, which puts players at a disadvantage in a sport like soccer.

Tony

Dan — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:08:49 -0800

Replying to Justin,

The hard truth is – China is comparatively uninventive compared to the West, a direct reflection on China’s education, management and governance systems. Of course not all Chinese are uninventive; there is plenty of innovation coming out of Taiwan and Hong Kong which are under different systems. Justin does raise a valid point about money and publicity, but the cultures of management and education are critical.

And what about compass, paper, gunpower, printing? That’s great 4 inventions in the last couple of thousand years, not that great a record. Also no great invention has come out of China since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty in 14th Century.