Three months before Li tie, Chinese football had suffered a blow, with a 7-0 defeat by bitter rivals Japan in the World Cup classification.
“This is like England was beaten by Germany,” says Dr. Gow.
“The fans were angry, but they were more exasperated. Exasperated in the state of the game and exasperated at the level of corruption in the game.”
When XI established its football plan in 2016, it led to a wave of investments of Chinese private investors in British and European clubs.
The Super League China (CSL) had its own resurgence, with wealthy owners who pumped money to clubs to finance movements for players such as Oscar, Chelsea, and Zenit St Petersburg Hulk.
Now, only two Chinese investors have general control of professional clubs in England: the Fosun International Group in Wolverhampton Wanderers and Dai Yongge, whose tenure in Reading has been harassed by financial crises and deductions of successive points.
And the clubs in the CSL have the cost of their transfer spending, with Guangzhou Evergrande, who won eight national titles and two Leagues of Asian champions between 2011 and 2019, forced to liquidation in January as a result of unpaid debts.
“Many entrepreneurs used China’s football strategy as a pretext to get money from China,” says Dr. Gow.
“It is very difficult to get their money from China, so they took this opportunity that there was a national policy.
“Very fast, within a period of two or three years, the authorities appeared and said ‘no, this is not what we want you to be doing, so they closed the door of that external investment.”
With the presence of Chinese investors decreasing in European clubs, and with the national male team that still struggles to incurs in the countryside, it is tempting to cancel Xi ambitions already.
But those who have spent time in the country still feel that the objectives can be met by 2050, with the results of China in younger age groups that indicate some progress.
“Never underestimes,” says Dr. Gow.
“When you have the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Republic of China, and go out with a plan like this, they tend to deliver the objectives.”
