Foreign-based players spearhead ailing China football to higher status
22/3/2007 16:52
While China football is still licking their wounds from the women's
Algarve Cup fiasco early March, the world's most popular game is trying to gain
ground in China following some inspiring performances of their foreign-based
players.
China captain Zheng Zhi made headlines across the British media on
Monday after a match-winning display that gives Charlton Athletic hope of
avoiding Premier League relegation.
Zheng, who signed a loan from Shandong
Luneng on Dec. 29 until the end of the season, headed Charlton in front against
Newcastle United in his first full start on Sunday.
He followed up by winning
a late penalty converted by Jerome Thomas to give the southeast London club a
precious 2-0 victory in their struggle to beat the drop.
Another Chinese
sensation Sun Xiang played both legs of the European Championships match between
Eindhoven PSV and English giant Arsenal, making him the first Chinese soccer
player who has played at the European elite soccer competition.
Besides,
China's Ma Xiaoxu, the AFC's Women's Player of the Year, secured a contract with
the Swedish women's soccer champions Umea IK.
Umea, who have reportedly
agreed a six-month deal with Ma starting from the new season in April, are one
of the top women's clubs in Europe with five domestic championships and two
European crowns in the past seven years. Their side includes FIFA Women's World
Player of the Year Marta and Swedish talisman Hanna Ljungberg.
However,
Chinese footballers also disappointed the fans in equal measure recently
following the women team's nightmarish run in the Algarve Cup football
tournament, where they lost four straight matches.
Since finishing second to
the United States in the 1999 World Cup, the Chinese women, known as the "Steel
Roses", have failed to return to such heights in international
competitions.
The team was left high and dry into 2007 when the Chinese
Football Association (CFA) failed to appoint the new head coach since former
manager Ma Liangxing left the squad ahead of the Four Nations tournament, citing
a heart problem late January.
The former top team has slipped to the 11th
spot on the FIFA rankings on March 16 after the Algarve Cup.
In men's part, a
mass brawl in London between the Chinese Olympic squad and English first
division team Queens Park Rangers on Feb. 7 cast a shadow over the China
Football Association (CFA)'s efforts to improve the league's image.
Embattled
by black whistle and gambling, the CFA has vowed to keep a clean image of the
top football league ahead of the new season which started early March.
"We
must improve the competing level and make efforts to bring spectators back to
the stands," said Ma Chengquan, one of the officials in charge of organising
soccer leagues at the governing body on Feb. 26 at Xianghe, Hebei
province.
The CFA held a two-day meeting at Xianghe, the first of its kind to
bring together referees, club managers and team coaches, to address the possible
problems in the upcoming season.
"Then, there must be a crackdown on gambling
and the stadium security has to be maintained," he added.
A further strive
was also made by the association, promising to donate six million yuan (US$0.78
million) to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation for their Warming China project,
which aims to help out those poverty-stricken cancer patients for free.
"I
hope this could help create a positive image for China soccer, which drew too
much criticism in the past few years," said Li Jinyu, an international from
top-flight club Shandong Luneng, who acts as image ambassador for the project.
Xinhua
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