Opinion | Why China aren’t at Fifa World Cup 2022 – and what could boost their chances in future
- It is 20 years since China’s national team last qualified for the men’s World Cup, and on recent evidence it is a long way from doing so again
- Research into what helps countries succeed in international football suggests some factors are not in China’s favour, but others can be changed at policy level
In the year that China last qualified for a World Cup, 2002, one of us published a paper that identified economic, demographic, cultural and climatic factors which influenced international football performance.
It found that economic wealth was important but only to a certain degree. The Mediterranean climate is also ideal for football, while a country’s population size did not matter unless it had a significant proportion of people of Latin cultural origin, because of football being seen as a pathway to status and wealth in such countries.
Some 20 years on, we revisited our previous study and found that much of the research was just as relevant two decades on, suggesting the fundamentals of what makes a country good at football have not changed, and that China has unfortunately still not been able to address these issues.
Looking at Fifa’s world rankings to gauge performance shows 18 of the top 20 are represented in this year’s World Cup. The list also reveals that 13 national teams from the top 20 in 2001 remain in 2022’s list.
