It's a government game - Rowan Simons

Rowan Simons

Soccer in China is a government's game , analyzes our soccer specialist Rowan Simons in yet another review of his leading book on this sport in a section of the Wall Street Journal. "It is all politics."

“I was extremely happy on 13 July 2001, when China won the bid to host the Olympics,” says Simons, who is also director of Odyssey Media Investments, a media investment consultancy. “But I’ve become disillusioned. It started as a wonderful opportunity for China to open up.”

Simons says that China focuses only on elite athletes who are sure to bring home the medals and neglects community sports. “The Olympics has put sports reform in China back by a decade,” he says. “The danger is that China thinks the Olympics is the end of its sports journey. But it should be the beginning of a new sports revolution in China.”