Beijing: After staging both summers and now a Winter Olympics, there is one major international sports event left for China to host — the football World Cup.
Football fan President Xi Jinping has said he wants China to stage and even win the men’s World Cup one day, and the country has been building and renovating stadiums in apparent anticipation.
However, analysts say Xi’s dream faces a number of obstacles, starting with the dismal performance of the national team.
The men’s side has only ever qualified for the World Cup once, in 2002, when they failed to win a point or even score a goal.
Their already failing 2022 Qatar World Cup hopes ended for good in a humiliating 3-1 defeat against Vietnam this month.
As hosts, they would automatically qualify for the World Cup, but the current Chinese side would be in real danger of humiliation.
“Many believe China doesn’t want to host a World Cup until they can be more confident the national team can perform well enough so as not to embarrass the country,” said Cameron Wilson, founder of the Wild East Football website, which specializes in Chinese football.
Chinese football became famous a few years ago for splurging on famous foreign coaches and players, but those days are now long gone.
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