Regarding the turning point of Chinese football, there are two opinions in public opinion. One is that the defeat in the top ten Asian qualifying matches that began in 2001 was due to Wang Xiaojun's own goal.
Another theory is that the turning point was the game in 2005. Zhao Kangming was sent off just 14 minutes into the game, which officially opened a dark decade for Chinese football.
But even those who hold the second view must admit that the failure of the top ten in 2001 had a huge impact on Chinese football. Even if the Chinese team reached the finals of the 2004 Asian Cup, it was just a certain form of failure.
It's just a flashback.
Perhaps darkness had already struck before the "Dark Decade", and the first shadow appeared after the game in 2001.
The Chinese team in 2001 was strong and strong, gathering the most elite forces of China's professional football reform at that time. At the same time, that World Cup was in Asia, co-hosted by two countries, and the Asian region suddenly lost its two most powerful competitors.
.
At that time, the Chinese media and fans were optimistic, believing that the right time, right place, and right people meant that it was the Chinese team's turn to participate in the World Cup finals.
The result is that such a team, which has high hopes from the people across the country, once again failed in the top ten. It missed what may be the best opportunity to participate in the World Cup finals.
Later, when people looked back at the beginning, many people felt that Chinese football was actually dead at that time. The red card Zhao Kangming received in the 14th minute in 2005 was just a coffin for Chinese football.
Just the last nail was driven in.
Then Chinese football entered a dark period that lasted for nearly ten years.
The Football Association is corrupt, officials are corrupt, they do not seek political power in their positions, and they do whatever they can to make money;
The referee in black is no longer the court judge and maintains order, but has become a veritable "black whistle";
The selection of the national team has become an auction, and the highest bidder wins, not the most capable;
The head coach is just the dog of the Football Association. The most important thing is not the level of coaching but the degree of obedience;
Clubs are unable to make ends meet and are burning money to survive. Many companies have withdrawn from football, and those who remain can only struggle. Some teams change their home stadiums every year, like duckweeds without roots and no fixed place to live.
Drifting. Both attendance and ratings of China’s football leagues plummeted. In the end, even national TV stations were no longer willing to broadcast their own country’s leagues, and no sponsors were willing to provide title sponsorship for a league with endless negative news;
Media reporters have abandoned their professional ethics and adhered to the same party and opposed dissidents. Whoever gives more money speaks for whom. For the sake of naked interests, they do not hesitate to spread rumors and use their pens to portray people they dislike in the media as heinous bastards. China
sinners of football;
The public is impetuous and regards Chinese football as a spittoon to vent their negative emotions. They rush to spit on Chinese football to gain attention and prove their wisdom, further pushing the image of Chinese football to the bottom;
…
Like countless hands, it pushed Chinese football further into the abyss.
Under the avalanche, no snowflake is innocent.
This situation lasted until 2014, when the country finally couldn't bear the chaos in Chinese football. The higher-ups heard the voice of the people, so they resorted to thunderous means to declare war on the evil and ugly phenomena in Chinese football.
The leaders of the Football Association should be arrested and sentenced, and those players, coaches, and even the club's management who used black whistles and black whistles for match-fixing. Big figures who used to appear glamorously on TV cameras are now all in jail, wearing
Wearing prison uniform, he confessed in front of the TV cameras with a haggard face.
After the high-level anti-gang storm, the Football Association was almost overthrown and started over.
A new Football Association team was established, and at the national level, the barriers between various departments were also opened.
In the past, football seemed to be only a matter of the General Administration and the Football Association. Therefore, although the Football Association had long proposed a plan to bring football to campus and wanted to develop campus football, it had little effect because the Football Association could not control the education department.
In everyone's opinion, if the education department can allow students to add a football option to the junior high school physical education graduation exam, it will already give the Football Association a lot of face. After all, the Football Association is almost the department with the worst public image in China. If the Football Association encounters some problems
, eating something deflated will only attract ridicule and ridicule from everyone, but there will definitely be no sympathy for them, let alone anyone to speak for them.
But this time, the high wall was broken through.
With the joint efforts of the Football Association and the education department, a new national football competition for middle school students was organized.
In fact, there used to be national football competitions for middle school students, but on the one hand there were few participating schools, and on the other hand it had low influence and not enough visibility. Almost no one knew about it, and it was more like a small circle of self-entertainment.
This kind of competition between middle school students is definitely not what the New Football Association wants.
Through cooperation with the education department, efforts will be made to promote this event. The existing provincial middle school student football competitions in each province will be connected with the national competition, so that the provincial middle school student competitions will become the qualifiers for the national competition. The qualifying stage allows all provinces and municipalities
Develop a competition system based on your actual situation. It can be a single elimination system, a league-only system, or a centralized competition system.
Finally, a quota will be determined to participate in the national competition the following spring.
At the same time, we also actively contacted various traditional media and new online media platforms to promote this new event.
Since the fall semester of 2014, five national competitions have been successfully held, and today is the sixth national competition.
It took five years of continuous promotion and publicity to make this event more and more popular among the people.
The effect is quite outstanding. Nowadays, middle school students are very concerned about the national competition. Whether they like football or not, they all know that our country holds a national middle school football championship every spring.
The strongest middle school football team in China. Many schools with football traditions are proud to win this national championship.
Some people even compare China’s national competition with Japan’s national competition.
Although there is no comparison between the two so far, they can be discussed together, which is a great improvement for the Chinese Middle School Football National Championship, which has just started.
Some people analyze why the Football Association is so keen on organizing this middle school football championship. Cultivating reserve talents for Chinese football is only one aspect. The more important reason may be that it wants to reshape the image of Chinese football.
Because the previous image of Chinese football was really bad, many jokes about Chinese football were produced during that period, ridiculing and ridiculing Chinese football.
Compared with professional football, which has a more complicated situation and a more negative image in the past, campus football is much simpler, especially at the middle school level. Creating a sunny and positive campus football event will help improve the public's inherent perception of Chinese football.
This is not a project that happens overnight. Maybe these alone are not enough to change the negative view of Chinese football in society today, but think about these students who have participated in national competitions and are in the environment of this national competition. When they gradually
When they grow up, enter society, and become the mainstream of this society, how will they recall the National Middle School Football Championship that has become a part of their youth?
Will they say that those games in which they shed tears and sweat are worthless garbage? Is it an ugly collection of match-fixing and black whistles?
No, they themselves would not think so, and they would never allow others to insult the event in which they have devoted their youth and blood.
So under the leadership of these people, will the overall image of Chinese football improve?
※※※
Hu Lai withdrew from his memory. He had just carefully recalled in his mind some information about football in this country that he had learned since coming to this world.
To a certain extent, the Chinese football in this time and space has many similarities with the Chinese football in the time and space he came from, so similar that he even had the illusion that "actually I have not traveled through time."
But obviously, there are still many differences, and in those parts that are familiar, the subsequent development trends are different.
Let’s not talk about the changes at the professional football level, let’s not talk about the different development paths of the league, let’s talk about the changes in campus football.
Before time travel, Hu Lai's goal was to join the school team, but he didn't join the school team to participate in some national competition. He knew almost nothing about the national competition, and he didn't even think about it.
He just wanted to join the school team. As for what would happen after joining the school team, he didn't think much about it. He just wanted to play games with the surrounding schools from time to time, and it would be good to participate in the "Shizhang Cup" in the city.
But after coming to this time and space, you can join the school team and participate in the national middle school football competition. How attractive is this!
Now, in the fifth year of the promotion of this event, 128 middle schools in Andong Province, where Dongchuan City is located, have participated. This is because the competition organizing committee of Andong Province deliberately controls the participation.
Otherwise, there will be more participating schools, but too many schools will cause the competition schedule to be stretched, and if the competition schedule is too long, it will in turn weaken the enthusiasm of the schools to participate.
After all, a school does not only have one football team, learning is the main business of students. The relationship between football and learning must be balanced. We cannot just consider how many teams are playing, nor can we blindly expand the scale of the game.
If this issue is not considered, then the school will give up participating in football matches due to pressure from parents. If parents find that playing football will affect their children's academic performance, then they will not care about their children's youthful passion.
, what kind of football dream, will definitely cut off the connection between their children and football without mercy or hesitation.
This is also a delicate balance that has been formed after the past five competitions.
It can also be seen from this that only the education department and the sports department can work together to make this event go further. Without the cooperation of the education department, the Football Association alone cannot push this behemoth.
In Andong Province, there are 128 schools participating, so a single-game elimination system is adopted. As for who plays home and who plays away, an online draw is used to decide.
Hu Lai's Dongchuan Middle School was lucky enough to get the home draw.
But in fact, the visiting team No. 50 Middle School had better luck. They were lucky enough to get an opponent from their own city and did not have to compete across cities. Although high-speed rail is now very developed, you can take a high-speed rail from Dongchuan City to any city in Andong Province.
It won't take more than two hours, but the fatigue of the journey will still affect the team's combat effectiveness.
Because they were playing a game in this city, a small cheerleading team of thirty people followed the No. 50 Middle School football team. They wore neat clothes and used uniform slogans and actions to cheer for the team.
Even though their team is now trailing 0:3 on the court, their cheers are still ringing.
Before the game, Hu Lai heard Mao Xiao say that No. 50 Middle School was not a strong football school, and their school team was average in strength. The best result was to reach the third round of the Anton Cup, which is the national competition qualifier.
But this does not prevent them from participating in this event every year. Even if they are in the first round, they will still come the next year.
For the senior team members, maybe losing this game means losing three years of dreams and hopes, but they are still running tirelessly on the court. Everyone is taking this seriously.
This game, even though it may be their last game of the year...
Hu Lai, wearing the No. 14 jersey, was sitting on the bench on the sidelines of the court. Although this game had nothing to do with him, just like the game in the physical education class, he could only be a bystander on the sidelines, but he
But he was very fascinated by it.
In the past, he didn't know how much he envied Japanese high school students. He envied their youth who sweated on the court, shed tears in the locker room, and cheered for their school team in the stands.
Even those heartbreaking failures made him envious.
In contrast, the youth of Chinese students has been defined by those movies and TV dramas as a mess of boys and girls hysterical, having abortions and fighting.
He sat motionless, staring at the court intently, greedily taking in all the scenes on the court and in the stands. All of this dazzled him and made him intoxicated.
What a beautiful new world this is!
※※※
p.s. It’s not on the shelves yet. No matter how many ps I write after the chapter, I don’t have to worry about asking you to spend more money. I will continue to use this opportunity to share my thoughts on this chapter with you.
This chapter seems to be an introduction to the new world, similar to the setting instructions, but I describe everything from Hu Lai's perspective.
I hope you don’t think it’s watery.
Because the things mentioned in this chapter are actually the reasons why I want to write an imaginary football world:
Having written football novels for seventeen years and being a Chinese fan for nearly thirty years, I actually have a lot to say about football, especially Chinese football, and I have also had some assumptions that sound arrogant and do not know the bounds of heaven and earth.
I can post these words on Weibo, my circle of friends, or even public accounts.
But as an online novel writer, I think writing these words into an online novel is probably the best way for me.
I mentioned my thoughts on football and education in "Heart of a Champion". During the 2018 World Cup, I was invited by the publisher of "Heart of a Champion" to write an article about the educational attributes of football.
Put it in my official account.
In "Green Green", I expressed some of my thoughts through Zhao Ju. What should I do with those who have started to pursue the path of professional football since childhood, but did not get out in the end? Who is responsible for their lost teenagers? Who is responsible for them?
Responsible for their future?
How many parents are willing to send their children to professional football and gamble on such an unclear future?
So can campus football be a solution to parents’ concerns?
Now I am a married man, and my son is seven and a half years old and in elementary school. Last semester, my wife and I traveled to many places to learn about some things about our children’s football classes.
To be honest, my child has no talent, and I don’t expect him to take the path of professional football. But I still want to send him to learn to play football. I just hope that I can make him fall in love with football and learn something from football.
At the very least, he can do some physical exercise to relieve him a little from the life of staying at home and doing homework every day.
I believe that many parents who send their children to participate in various football interest classes have this idea. They may not really want their children to become professional players in the future, but they just want to find an opportunity for their children to play sports and allow their children to pass
This is the way to fall in love with football.
This is still under the premise that we do not have a systematic unified campus football league.
What if there is?
When my son was still very young, I once had a fantasy. I imagined that after he went to school, he joined the school's football team and played games with the team every week. I would watch his games from the stands, cheer him on, and play well.
I like to praise him, and I have a good chat with him on the way home if he doesn't play well. If he loses the game, I comfort him and encourage him.
As he grows up, memories related to football will become a very important part. The campus football league will become the common memory of their generation, that is, their youth.
And I will be particularly pleased that the youth I have not experienced can be realized in my children.
But unfortunately, the campus football environment in our country does not support such a dream of mine.
So I wrote it in a book, a world where I, the author, have the final say. I want to describe such a national unified event, I want to describe the football youth shared by such a group of teenagers, and their transition from campus to career.
experience.
Parents in this world don’t have to worry about their children giving up their studies and taking the one-plank bridge of professional football. If their children are really talented, they will naturally attract the interest of professional teams through events such as national competitions. Do you want to go there?
It is up to the children and parents to decide together.
If they have average talent or do not have this ambition, they can still enjoy football on campus without giving up their studies. They will continue to go to school, take the college entrance examination, and eventually enter university and embark on another life path.
Or if you participate in the same national college football league in college, if you perform well, you will also have the opportunity to enter professional football.
When they become adults, they will be grateful for everything they experienced on the high school football team, which taught them to face setbacks, work as a team, fight side by side with their teammates, celebrate victories, and face failures.
This will become a valuable asset in their lives.
Only when the worries of students and parents are solved can football regain its vitality in this populous country, and we will have a large football population.
Considering the size of China's population, such a football population is very large, terrifyingly large.
This huge football population will become the cornerstone and soil of the upper-level football building. This is true in any football power.
Without a sufficient football population, there will be no excellent football atmosphere and football level. Without a sufficient football population, there will be no strong national team and no flourishing professional league.
But the most important thing is that without the football population, there would be no football sport, and football would become a water without a source and a tree without roots.
For me, imagining such a campus football environment is also my little suggestion, or idea, on how to improve the level of Chinese football.
I know this is a bit idealistic, but I am just a football novel writer and not the chairman of the Football Association, so it is not up to me to make my ideals come true. Let me finish my dream first.
Just like what I said from Hu Lai's perspective, what a beautiful new world this is.
I hope that in reality, one day in the future, we can also have such a beautiful new world.
Thank you everyone for listening to my chatter, let us continue to look forward to Hu Lai's future in this new world!