Football in China consists of Association football (Chinese: 足球; pinyin: zúqiú) as well as the China national football team. Football has been one of the most well supported sports in China, since it was introduced in the early 1900s. Ancient Chinese football was called "Cuju". The national governing body is the Chinese Football Association (CFA). Hong Kong and Macau have separate leagues.
The professional league is marred by match-fixing, illegal betting, and violence on and off the pitch, which the Chinese government has said would take a long time to fix. In fact, many insiders including the two former CEO of the Football Association of China were arrested and prosecuted for gambling and fixing games. Registered players are also dwindled rapidly during the past years. In 1995, registered players reached its climax at 650,000. However, it was melt down to only about 7,000 in 2008.
On December 21, 2009, China was awarded FIFA's Development Award after successfully implementing a new nationwide grassroots football program.
The Men's National Team is ranked 73rd in the world, and Women's National Team is ranked 13th.
Read more about Football In China: Professional League, National Team, Football Development, Media Coverage of Football in China
Famous quotes containing the words football and/or china:
“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)
“In a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption taken for granted, the elimination of these conditions in Communist China is so striking that negative aspects of the new rule fade in relative importance.”
—Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989)