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With the men’s national team suffering consecutive defeats in its 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifying campaign, it seems like the only way for Chinese football is up. Losing 7-0 away to Japan was particularly hard to swallow, especially given the geopolitical tensions between the two countries, and losing 2-1 at home to 10-man Saudi Arabia only made things worse.
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It is clear China’s success in individual Olympic sports has not translated into better results in the world’s most popular team sports, such as football and basketball. China’s men’s basketball team has failed to qualify for the past two Olympics, leaving its national governing body facing some serious soul-searching.
What can be done about this? While learning from Japan’s journey to success can help reform China’s scandal-hit football scene, it might be more sustainable to look into a US college sports model as a way to improve the fortunes of Chinese team sports. The US men’s football team is 16th in the latest Fifa ranking – higher than 18th-place Japan, Asia’s top-ranked team – despite a general lack of mainstream support and Americans’ preference for the country’s own brand of football. China is in 87th.
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Sports diplomacy between the US and China has historically generated wonderful results. In 1971, “ping-pong diplomacy” famously helped defuse tensions and restore diplomatic relations between the two nations.
Compared to China’s highly centralised sports governance, the market-driven US model seems more capable of sustainably delivering strong team sports performances. Such a model would benefit from having a mass market and a huge economy, both of which China already possesses.
