Fans, sponsors make it a World Cup with Chinese characteristics

Shanghai (AFP) – True to form, China failed to qualify for the World Cup but the planet’s most populous country will be far from absent: thousands of its fans will fly to Russia, and Chinese sponsors will loom large on global TV screens.

Despite not being able to cheer on their home side, many Chinese supporters are undeterred, and they are expected to arrive in numbers that will dwarf the followers of many competing teams.

The growing presence of fans and sponsors can be linked to China’s consumer boom, while excitement for football has been spurred on by President Xi Jinping’s ambitions to make 73rd-ranked China a world power in the sport.

China have only qualified once for the World Cup — when they exited goalless in 2002 — but expectations are high that it will bid to hold the tournament, with 2030 and 2034 often mentioned as possibilities.

One Chinese fan, Dai Qian, said he will spend nearly $10,000 to visit Russia and watch the tournament.

“We appreciate football as an art and we like the feeling of watching live football,” said the 38-year-old, a university professor in energy engineering who will travel as part of a 400-strong Chinese tour group.

According to the latest FIFA figures, nearly 37,000 tickets out of 1.7 million went to Chinese fans, the second-largest showing from countries that didn’t make the tournament, after the United States.

Dai said that in the absence of their own team, Chinese fans back the countries of their favourite players. For him, it’s Argentina because he grew up watching Italy’s Serie A on TV and was a fan of Gabriel Batistuta, the former Fiorentina and Roma striker.

– ‘Jump to be a global brand’ –

According to research by Britain’s Professor Simon Chadwick, Germany are the most popular foreign team in China, with some female fans swayed by the players’ looks.

It helps that Germany are reigning world champions and among the favourites in Russia.

“There is something about ‘brand Germany’ and the relationship between Germany and China,” said Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at University of Salford.

“There are sections of the Chinese population who like to be conspicuous consumers — who like to be seen to be consuming the best brands, the best-quality brands, and that confers a particular status on them. The same is true of their football.

“So if you can be a fan, why not pick the best?”

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