China might have the greatest number of soccer fans, but its national "eleven" is more or less a national embarrassment. It is the men's team that they care about the most but it is also the one that angers fans the most. For years, the squad's most impressive achievement has been its talent for looking for different ways to frustrate the fans.
However, Monday might have marked the last phase of such disappointments, as Chinese authorities introduced a new comprehensive reform plan for soccer teams. It soon made headlines and acquired tens of thousands of responses on social media and news websites. An overwhelming majority of the commentators gave the plan a thumbs-up.
The optimistic feedback demonstrates that the plan echoes what people have strongly been expecting for years. Despite the sorry state of China's soccer team, people still trust the plan with buoyancy and hope. Huang Jianxiang, one of China's famous soccer commentators, acclaimed on his Sina Weibo account "here comes the spring for Chinese soccer."
In the plan, the men's soccer team aims at making it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, and as for the country, it is eying being a host for the World Cup.
The latter goal might be realized much earlier than the former one, as China has shown its capability of holding such events several times since the success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But even though it might take much longer for the Chinese soccer team to lift the Jules Rimet trophy, the Chinese have grown more resilient and confident in face of the long process of soccer development.
The reform plan is exciting, but what's more exciting is that the Chinese still hold on to hope about Chinese soccer and firmly believe that it will have its day. This, from another perspective, reflects how the people view the drastic transformation of society. General agreements over many changes are being shared by the much wider public. A "Chinese dream" perception, proposed by China's top leadership, is regarded as underpinning public opinion. This "soccer dream" partakes of the bigger dream.
Despite the fact that every move of the soccer reform might trigger controversies, it is pleasing to see there is already consensus that the reform must be carried out for the public good. Chinese soccer has been in a weak position for too long, but step by step with effective reform, it won't be too long before people's expectations will become reality.
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