“Heaven is high and the emperor is far away.” As traditional Chinese proverbs go, there is perhaps none more apt for the China Cup football tournament held in Nanning in March. The capital city of Guangxi Autonomous Region, close to China’s border with Vietnam, is about as far from the Emperor as the country gets. And as for heaven, that was as distant once the whistle went in the host’s first game.
China’s national team, under the watchful eye of World Cup-winning Italian manager Marcello Lippi, were soon down to the visiting Wales side, one of three invitees, along with the Czech Republic and Russia 2018 qualifiers Uruguay, for the second annual four-way tournament.
The competition is the brainchild of Wanda Group owner Wang Jianlin, and the billionaire’s various business interests in the city explain why this is its location. He was seen before the opening game in the lobby of his Wanda Vista hotel, where the Chinese national team were based.
Avid football fan Wang had set up the tournament as a way to ensure that the Chinese team would be tested by stronger opposition than regional tournaments offer up. And also to ensure that local fans would get to see the best players in the world – not just the foreigners who have been coaxed to the Chinese Super League – play in the flesh.
China looked calm on the way to the game as they headed for the coach through a throng of press and to the robotic moves of some local university-age cheerleaders. That calm was abandoned once Gareth Bale opened the scoring for Wales, in what was former Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs’ first game in charge since taking over from Chris Coleman.
Real Madrid star Bale went on to deliver on Wang’s promise of the best players in the world showing their best in Nanning, as he became his country’s top scorer with a hat-trick. The Welsh dragons proved to be superior in a 6-0 romp that served to show how far away China are from President Xi Jinping’s targeted goal of competing for the World Cup by the middle of this century.
China have only qualified for the finals of the World Cup once, back when Japan and South Korea’s joint hosting of the 2002 Finals meant that there was an easier path for fellow Asian nations... Fast forward 16 years and little has changed.
China have only qualified for the finals of the World Cup once, back when Japan and South Korea’s joint hosting of the 2002 Finals meant that there was an easier path for fellow Asian nations, as the hosts qualified automatically. They left without a point or a goal – losing 2-0 to Costa Rica, 4-0 to Brazil and 3-0 to Turkey.
Fast forward 16 years and little has changed.
After the humbling by Wales, China were to play the Czech Republic, who had lost their semi-final 2-0 to Uruguay in a game that will be remembered for a wonderful Edinson Cavani scissor-kick.
While they were not at the races against the Welsh, a much-changed China side opened the scoring against the Czechs when Fan Xiaodong bundled in after five minutes. If heaven beckoned, then the Czechs had other ideas, responding with four goals to ensure that China ended their eponymous cup having lost twice and conceded 10.
While Lippi may have learned little (or things he would rather not have learned), it was nevertheless a great experience for Chinese football fans. Over 30,000 turned up for the first game. Only 500 or so of those were Welsh, who, having made the trip, were in fine voice. The rest were locals, and they were there to see Bale duly deliver before departing to a standing ovation from the whole ground.
Friday night’s game between Uruguay and the Czech Republic was less well attended, to the tune of 20-odd thousand, but again those who paid to get in – either face value or whatever the enterprising local touts found they could charge – also got to see Barcelona star Luis Suarez, PSG goal machine Cavani and Roma’s Denis Bergkamp-in-the-making Patrick Schick.
The tournament will be remembered for China’s tattooed players being covered in tape, so as to hide their ink from view and appease the new Chinese Football Association bosses. But what should be indelibly marked in the memory are the positives.
As well as the spectacle of some of the best players in world football perform at the Guangxi Olympic Stadium, Nanning saw an injection of tourist dollars from the visiting Uruguayans, Czechs and of course the Welsh chorus – who were by far the most enthusiastic takers-up of a chance to see their team in a far-flung land. Many tagged on trips to Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Vietnam, and of course, around Guangxi itself – the region which gives the back of the RMB20 note its striking geographic feature.
The town’s bar areas and hotel lobbies were also abuzz with traveling fans happily coming together with football as a common language, giving credence to China qualifying to the World Cup as hosts in the not too distant future.
Those are the positives and they are all off the pitch.
On it, there are many miles to go, and while the dream of the current powers that be include the latter stages of football’s promised land, such days remain as far away as ever.
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