1 ALL ASIAN FOOTBALL MAGAZINE POST LOCKDOWN FOOTBALL THE FUTURE OF THE CHINESE DREAM 2 INDEX SECTION 1.......................................................................................................... pag. 6 Chinese Investments in European Football (by Dario Focardi)........................... pag. 7 The future is a mass of concrete? (by Eduardo Accorroni).................................. pag. 13 SECTION 2...........................................................................................................pag. 17 Football stories in the covid era (by Nicholas Gineprini).................................... pag. 18 Return to the Football Stadium (by Nicholas Gineprini)......................................pag. 23 SEZIONE 3........................................................................................................... pag. 27 Nothing after Wu Lei (by Luigi Gemmi)............................................................. pag. 28 The naturalization: a solution or a problem? (by Servadei)................................. pag. 32 Focus on youth Chinese Football: interview to Daniele D’Eustacchio.................pag. 36 SECTION 4.......................................................................................................... pag. 39 Foreigner supporters in Chinese Football .............................................................pag. 40 The most difficult year for Hong Kong (by Mattia Ricotta)................................. pag. 46 A dream of summer (by Nicholas Gineprini) ...................................................... pag. 50 3 The Authors of the Magazie (in alphabetical order) Accorroni Eduardo (@ Zaratus34) Focardi Dario (@dariofocardi) Gemmi Luigi (@Luisgemmi) Gineprini Nicholas (@allafcfootball) Javadi Saman (@samanjavadi) Ricotta Mattia (@mattiaricotta) Servadei Danilo (@daniloservadei) We’d also like to thanks Guanpeng Wang, Jahanyar Mohebbi, Angelo Rinaldi, Cameron Wilson, Matt Parker, Brandon Chemers, Michael Oldfield, Tobias Zuiser and Daniele D’Eurstacchio for the interviews and the time they’ve conceded to us SOCIAL MEDIA You can follow All Asian Football on Facebook and Twitter (@allafcfootball), also find us on Youtube where we upload our Podcasts WEBSITE www.allasianfootball.com CONTACTS [email protected] It is forbidden to use the articles here published without any authorization, sharing the magazine file on Social Media or Internet sites is absolutely forbidden. 4 My Chinese friend Xiao Bao writes on his social media channels: 'The Chinese Federation on its website encourages the population to fight for the Chinese football dream, but it would be better to say that it encourages people to promote the dream of football officials. Chinese football and football are two completely different things. ' In 2015, the Chinese government and the football federation unveiled a document in 50 points for the development of football at national level: the plan is developed on several levels and planned for the opening by 2020 of 20,000 football schools (which will become 50,000 in 2025 ) and the construction of 70,000 football fields. The primary objective is to spread the culture of football using the various channels available (schools, private academies, companies, youth associations, etc.) in order to significantly increase the numbers of young footballers enrolled. The final goal is to improve the results of the national team: by 2030 China expects to be dominant in Asia and by 2050 to be one of the best performing teams in the world. The number of schools that have adopted football programs and of young players involved have been largely exceeded. So can this first five-year plan be considered a success? Why does Xiao Bao argue that Chinese football and football in general are two different things? The reason is simple: the first looks at the numbers, tries to please the politics with the Federation which is not at all independent from the government (as it should be in the FIFA statute) by taking measures that have nothing to do with the development of talent. Precisely, in this second issue of All Asian Football Magazine we will analyze the true face of the Chinese football dream, which tends to exclude the ambitions of a young footballer who dreams of becoming the new Wu Lei, or the fan who desires. follow his team and have a more intimate contact with the club. Rather, we talk about the dream of big real estate companies, football agents, private academy owners We have divided this second issue into four sections: the first and the third concern different aspects of Chinese football development: we will start by analyzing the wave of China's investments in European football to understand what are the economic and political directives that have led further thirty clubs to welcome capital from the Asian Country. China is also preparing to host many international events in the coming years, but the most likely legacy once all the events have been consummated may be an incredible piles of concrete in the middle of nowhere. We will also talk about the development of the national team and youth football (section 3): having observed that there is no new Wu lei on the horizon, and that the youth national teams are unable to obtain the slightest result, the Chinese Federation now rely on the naturalization of foreign athletes. A clumsy attempt to hide the dust under the carpet, given that Daniele D'Eustacchio, a coach with seven years of experience in China, tells us all the problems and contradictions of football at a youth level. The second section will be dedicated to 2020, with post lockdown football with many testimonies and interviews from those who managed to attend matches on a neutral pitch in the Suzhou and Dalian bubbles, to those who worked in the Chinese Super League clubs, and in amateur football. There will also be a story about the fans return to the stadiums and our personal long odyssey from Beijing to Suzhou to attend the playoff game between Beihing Guoan and Shandong Luneng The fourth and last section will be dedicated to football and society: we interviewed the foreign fans of the Chinese Super League teams and analyzed the delicate economic and sporting situation in Hong Kong. We close the magazine by suggesting a good Chinese film from 2017, which tells the story of a child and his love for football (and Del Piero) in the Chinese city of Shaoxing during the summer of the 1998 World Cup. We wish you a good reading. 5 SECTION 1 The Chinese attempt to conquer European Football China's major investments in European football with acquisitions of clubs and assets like TV rights. The influence of Chinese companies on FIFA and the near future made up of major international events in the Asian Country. But what will be the legacy of these enormous ambitions? 6 Chinese investments in European Football How and why Chinese companies invested in the purchase of clubs in the Old Continent The ceremony of purchase of Inter Milan by Suning The expansion of Chinese companies in the We have to think that since the start of the investments, with the purchase in 2015 of 20% market for the purchase of European soccer of Atletico Madrid by Wang Jianlin, owner of teams has been drastically reduced since the Xi Dalian Wand - construction giant - the Jinping government, in the State Council held on investments have taken on unthinkable August 11, 2017, ruled that investment in foreign proportions. Europe was about to turn into a soccer was "irrational". So it imposed great gigantic map of Monopolies, in which the bureaucratic brakes on the exit of Chinese capital companies of the Middle-Kingdom were doing from the country for reasons related to sport, as and undoing as they pleased. Why did the well as cinema or real estate. The concrete government decide to make this tightening of reason for this reversal of the trend is the fact investment after having stimulated them for so that many of these investments did not guarantee long? Can a mediocre return on image be a good image return for the establishment, enough? because they resulted in bad management and The reasons for the investments were these: easy bad sports results. An unflattering image return, enrichment, desire to have a minimum of fun and, which did not please Xi and his senior officials. 7 above all, to acquire bonuses in the eyes of the football hubs that live in a continuous Chinese Prime Minister, who is a passionate relationship with each other. Places to sort soccer fan. In fact, Xi Jinping has been defined players as if they were retail goods, with tax by the Chinese state agency Xinhua as "the controls obviously more limited given the soccer fan with a collection of jerseys that could common starting property. Which are the most make even the most ardent of fans green with popular ones? envy". And, you know, when passion goes hand in hand with capital, unthinkable madness can We start from Italy. Since 2016 the International arise, such as investing about 2 and a half billion F.C. has entered the orbit of Suning Holding euros over 3 years in soccer Europe. When these Groups, led by Zhang Jindong. The Chinese figures emerged, someone within the Chinese giant is the third largest industry in the country, government was alarmed because this huge with an annual turnover of 72.29 billion euros mountain of money, put into the markets in such (2019 data from chinadaily.com), and is mainly a short time, risked looking like a money involved in the retail sale of technological laundering attempt. This was the main reason for equipment and household tools. Inter is not new the stop. As Mark Dreyer of China Sports Insider to ties with China. Already in 1978, the team at says, this modus operandi often returns to the the time led by Eugenio Bersellini, became the Chinese economy: "Initially there is a green first Italian club to cross the Great Wall to play a light and everyone is there and they say to each friendly match. The story of Suning Sports' other "now, now, now". Then a red light comes sports director, Gong Lei, is well known. When on and everything freezes". Wang himself, as he he was 12 years old, he would have tried in was the first to invest, was also the first to let go.