China has far more money than Italy. Especially in sports. They’re just traditionally bad at team sports. As a nation, that is. There are of course Chinese star athletes playing in a team on the international stage but not enough to actually compete in most things as a national team.
Another factor is probably cultural. These countries simply don’t have rhe obsession with football during childhood that other nations have. I might be misinformed, but I’ve not gotten the impression that every Chinese child, no matter how poor, spends all their time outside playing football. But that is the impression I have of, say, Brazil.
Apparently China has a booming football culture (according to Wikipedia at least), but it seems to be a mostly in-house venture for now. Basketball is popular too. Maybe we’ll see more international competition in the future?
There are a lot of reasons, but culture is definitely high among them. China has spent a lot of time and money over the years trying to improve their football presence but it hasn’t been working at all.
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Yes, you need to be an absolute economic powerhouse like… checks notes… Uzbekistan to qualify in the AFC.
China has far more money than Italy. Especially in sports. They’re just traditionally bad at team sports. As a nation, that is. There are of course Chinese star athletes playing in a team on the international stage but not enough to actually compete in most things as a national team.
Another factor is probably cultural. These countries simply don’t have rhe obsession with football during childhood that other nations have. I might be misinformed, but I’ve not gotten the impression that every Chinese child, no matter how poor, spends all their time outside playing football. But that is the impression I have of, say, Brazil.
Apparently China has a booming football culture (according to Wikipedia at least), but it seems to be a mostly in-house venture for now. Basketball is popular too. Maybe we’ll see more international competition in the future?
There are a lot of reasons, but culture is definitely high among them. China has spent a lot of time and money over the years trying to improve their football presence but it hasn’t been working at all.
https://www.dw.com/en/china-pivots-football-focus-from-mens-to-womens-game/a-63763569
https://www.dw.com/en/how-china-wants-to-become-a-football-heavyweight/a-63652825
Chinese kids grow up learning how to cooperate instead of how to compete.
Then wouldn’t they do better in team sports than individual sports?
They’re both competitions.