The average number of Chinese girls in a football school sharply
decreased from 150 to 50 in recent years, shaking the foundation of
the national team, which had ever been one of the world's best.
Even the Shanghai Yangpu District, the renowned "Town of
Football" in China, can recruit one-digit number of girls for
training every year. In many provinces, the number is nil now. The
lack of headstream forced the only women's football school in
Beijing, run by former star playmaker Liu Ailing, to close in June
this year.
"Fewer parents are willing to send their daughters to football
schools," said Wang Jianding, Xi'an team leader, in Wuhan of Hubei Province on Saturday at the ongoing
women's soccer tournament of the Sixth Chinese City Games.
"Girls in schools seldom play football because they have too
many choices such as playing musical instruments and singing, and
they usually prefer table tennis and swimming if they engage in
sports," said Wang. "Even if some girls like football and want to
join a football team, they have to ask for the parents' permission
and the answer is always negative."
Wang's remarks were echoed by coaches from many teams and
officials from the Chinese Football Association (CFA).
"I'm quite worried about the present status of the development
of Chinese junior women soccer players," said Wen Lirong, a former
star defender of the "Steel Roses" and an official with the CFA
women's department now.
The fast economic growth in China is making the development of
sports in the country market-oriented. The more eye-catching men's
soccer, leaned on the Chinese Super League, created many
millionaires from the male professional footballers.
However, women footballers in China still lead a relatively poor
life. A coach told Xinhua that the women's soccer events in China
always face the embarrassment of lack of funds. For junior players,
many of them not only have no income but have to pay traveling fees
by themselves.
A newspaper report had ever said that a female footballer
collected drinking water bottles on the street to make money after
a match.
"For a junior football team after several years' training, only
three or four players can enter the provincial team and maybe none
of them can enter the national team, said an official with
Guangzhou Football Association.
"These players have to find way out by themselves, but they have
no other skills for making a living due to the long-term training,
so it's hard for them to gain their foothold in the society," he
noted.
"The descending of the Chinese women football national team is a
social problem," said Zhang Jianqiang, director of CFA women's
department. "No parents would like to send their daughters to the
football schools if there is no good educational environment and no
way out."
A new mode of Combination of Sports and Education has been
advocated and applied in China, but still a lot of work needs to be
done by relevant departments on popularizing the mode.
The Chinese women's football team reached its peak in 1999 World
Cup in the United States where they finished runners-up, only
losing to the hosts in the final through penalty shootout.
Sun Wen, former world's best female footballer, Liu Ailing, the
key playmaker who scored two brilliant long shots home in China's
5-0 crush over Norway in the 1999 World Cup semifinal, and Wen
Lirong, the core defender, are still in mind of the Chinese
fans.
Since these elites' retirement, the "Steel Roses" withered away
for lack of talents for many years.
Although Marika Domanski-Lyfors, a Swede who led Sweden to the
runners-up of 2003 World Cup, pulled the Chinese team out of the
nadir to the top eight of the 2007 World Cup in China, the
technical and tactical level of the squad is still quite lower than
other participating teams.
(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2007)