Professional Reform and the Introduction of Foreign Coaches in Chinese Football since 1992: Progress or Stagnation?

Abstract

Since 1992, the Chinese Football Association has introduced seven foreign coaches to guide the Chinese men’s football team, meanwhile launching the Chinese A League in 1994. Not only has the expected improvement and development of football in China fail to materialize, but the national team’s performance and its world ranking have declined. The ‘official oriented’ management system and incomplete professional reform of Chinese football weakened the juvenile reserve personnel culture and moved training ideas and methods backwards. In addition, the negative influence of traditional Chinese culture on Chinese football restricted the success of Chinese football reform and the improvement of the level of Chinese football. At the same time, general low quality and lack of ability of Chinese players, the limitations of the foreign coaches themselves, and all factors that led to the failure of Chinese football reform influenced the lack of success of the foreign coaches.