OUT AGAIN: China men's National Football Team loses the game against Iraq on June 14, 2008, putting end to its efforts to qualify for 2010 World Cup finals (XINHUA)

CORRUPTION BUSTER: Wei Di, the new appointed head of CFA (XINHUA)

One of the most puzzling phenomena in world sport is why China cannot field a quality men's football team. China has the population and certainly has the sporting talent, if one looks at the Olympic results. Yet their presence in a FIFA World Cup final continues to elude the country, much to the chagrin of its millions of football fans. Since 1957 when China first strived to qualify for the World Cup finals, it has succeeded only once and that was in 2002.

This year at World Cup 2010 in South Africa, China is once again conspicuous by its absence.

Corruption buster

So what is going wrong in the corridors of power that control Chinese football? One thing was clear. Reform was needed. This has come in the form of Wei Di who is sweeping up the mess left behind by former football chiefs Nan Yong and Yang Yimin, both arrested for corruption earlier this year. Wei, who was appointed to head up China's football development, immediately set about putting systems in place to combat corruption and gambling in football circles. Wei's reform, together with police investigations, has seen a drop in these problems.

Wei isn't playing games. To show how serious he is he removed the six department heads in the China Football Association (CFA) and named five new faces within two months after he took his office.

"To make the reform a success, we should first reform CFA itself. CFA should be a real non-governmental organization with independent functions [Independent from government]," said Xu Jiali, Spokesman of CFA. He added that for a long time in the past, despite being classified as an NGO, CFA actually plays the role of a government department with administrative powers.

Three-year pledge

"If I fail to improve China's football condition, or fail to stem the downward spiral of football within three years, I will resign," said Wei at a meeting on April 26. Three years from now, the qualifying rounds for 2014 FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil will be concluded. It is a big challenge for someone who has no experience in football development.

Many football fans, like diehard Zhang Hongtao, don't think he can make it in such a short time span.

According to Zhang, in the first five years after becoming professional in 1994, Chinese football made steady progress, which gave local fans hope. However, after that things fell apart due to corruption and football gambling.

"I am very glad to see the severe measures taken by the police against corruption and match fixing and Wei's harsh measures to reform CFA," Zhang told ChinAfrica. He said fans would rather wait longer for results then rush the process.

After becoming a professional organization 16 years ago, CFA was previously chaired by four successive leaders: Wang Junsheng, Yan Shiduo, Xie Yalong and Nan Yong. None of them experienced the great challenges now facing Wei. The rampant corruption and gambling has led arrests of CFA leaders, club leaders and several well-known referees. This also provides a good opportunity for Wei to comprehensively restructure the top football administrative body.

Zhang said fans are more concerned with youth development than making it to Brazil in 2014. "I hope Wei can make more efforts to encourage children to play football," he said.

Jin Zhiyang, former coach of China's men's national football team, echoed Zhang's view. "We should spare no efforts to encourage campus football and construct more places for kids to play football. This is key to China's football development," Jin told China Youth Daily.

Youth development

Now is the time to attract children to the beautiful game.

Zhang Yin is regarded as the godfather in football circles in northeast China's Liaoning Province. In 2001, he established a football school in Jinzhou to train teenagers to play football. However, his school only lasted three years and had to close in 2004. There are many such examples.

The only football school still operating after 14 years is the China Football School established by CFA in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province. But this school has also witnessed a sharp decline in the number of enrollments.

In 1996 when the school opened to the public, it planned to enroll 286 students and it was surprised to see more than 3,000 applicants; the next year, more than 3,500 students applied to study here and the school increased its enrollment to 300.

"That period of time was the peak of China's football development and many parents would like to send their children to study football," said Shen Zhaojun, Director of Student Affairs Management Department of China Football School in an interview with Beijing Youth Daily.

However things changed from 2001 and in 2008 only 50 children attended the entrance exam. Eight of the school's 21 football pitches have been reconstructed into basketball courts, beach volleyball courts and comprehensive training gyms. People now ask whether Chinese children no longer like playing football.

Shen said that while the children want to play football, parents don't encourage them as they see the not future in football development in China. "You can also see that from the performances of the national team in recent years," he said.

Overseas training

Sending young football players overseas to study advanced football skills is an important measure for Wei to promote football development in China. According to a Reuters report, China will send up to 500 teenagers to train at top European clubs over the next five years.

The plan, according to Wei, is aimed at developing the country's most talented players between the ages of 15 and 17, who are expected to spend two or three years at various European clubs in small groups of five or six.

"There will be 80-100 players dispatched to Europe each and every year from this year on," CFA spokesperson Dong Hua told Reuters.

This is not the first time that China sent potential elite footballers to countries with higher football skills for training. In 1993, sponsored by Jianlibao Group, CFA selected 22 teenagers, the China Jianlibao Youth Football Team, to spend five years training in Brazil. In 1996, another seven young football players were sent to Brazil to join them. The CFA and all Chinese people had great expectation that these youngsters would make up the bulk of the national football team to play for the 2006 World Cup.

However, in 2004, the Chinese national team, with seven top players from Jianlibao Youth Football Team, failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals. Wei seems to be confident about the new program, saying that China should learn from Spain's football style since Chinese people are physically similar to Spanish. "But we also should have Chinese elements," said Wei.

"[By launching the program,] we want our young players with the best potential to train in the Spanish, English, German, Italian and Dutch leagues, which have the highest standards of youth development," said Dong.

Can another Lionel Messi emerge from these teenagers? It's yet to be seen.