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In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping went to a business that makes humanoid robots. There he drifted a concept to fix the country's woeful men's soccer team.

"Can we have robots join the team?" Xi was priced quote as saying on the site of Zhiyuan Robotics.

It might be too late. China will be out of World Cup certifying if it stops working to beat Indonesia on Thursday. Even a triumph might just postpone the departure.

What's the issue? China has 1.4 billion people, the globe's second biggest economy and won 40 Olympic gold medals in 2015 in Paris to tie the United States. Why can't it discover 11 elite guys's soccer players?

The federal government touches every element of life in China. That top-down control has helped China end up being the largest maker of whatever from electronic devices to shoes to steel.

It has actually attempted to run soccer, however that stiff governance hasn't worked.

"What soccer shows is the social and political issues of China," Zhang Feng, a Chinese journalist and commentator, tells The Associated Press. "It ´ s not a totally free society. It doesn't have the team-level trust that permits players to pass the ball to each other without worrying."

Zhang argues that politics has stalled soccer's growth. And there's included pressure since Xi's a big fan and has actually guaranteed to resuscitate the video game at home. Soccer is a world language with its "own grammar," states Zhang, and China doesn't speak it.

"In China, the more emphasis the leader put on soccer, the more nervous the society gets, the more power the bureaucrats get, and the more corrupt they end up being," Zhang adds.

After China beat Thailand 2-1 in 2023, Xi joked with Srettha Thavisin, the Thai prime minister at the time. "I feel luck was a big part of it," Xi stated.

The agreement is clear. China has too couple of quality players at the turf roots, excessive political disturbance from the Communist Party, and there's excessive corruption in the local game.

Wang Xiaolei, another popular Chinese analyst, recommends that soccer clashes with China's top-down governance and the emphasis on rote learning.

"What are we best at? Dogma," Wang wrote in a blog site last year. "But football can not be dogmatic. What are we worst at? Inspiring ingenuity, and cultivating enthusiasm."

The most current chapter in China's abysmal guys's soccer history was a 7-0 loss last year to Japan.

"The fact that this defeat can happen and individuals aren ´ t that shocked - regardless of the historical displeasure - just highlights the issues dealing with football in China," says Cameron Wilson, a Scot who has actually worked in China for 20 years and written extensively about the video game there.

China has qualified for only one guys's World Cup. That was 2002 when it went scoreless and lost all three matches. Soccer's governing body FIFA positions China at No. 94 in its rankings - behind war-torn Syria and ahead of No. 95 Benin.

For point of view: Iceland is the smallest nation to reach the World Cup. Its most current population price quote is practically 400,000.

The website Soccerway tracks worldwide football and doesn't show a single Chinese player in a top European league. The nationwide team's finest gamer is forward Wu Lei, who bet 3 seasons in Spain's La Liga for Espanyol. The club's bulk owner in Chinese.

The 2026 World Cup will have a field of 48 teams, a big boost on the 32 in 2022, yet China still might not make it.

China will be eliminated from qualification if it loses to Indonesia. Even if it wins, China must likewise beat Bahrain on June 10 to have any hope of advancing to Asia's next qualifying stage.

Englishman Rowan Simons has actually invested practically 40 years in China and got fame doing tv commentary in Chinese on English Premier League matches. He also composed the 2008 book "Bamboo Goalposts."

China is gaining from reforms over the last years that put soccer in schools. But Simons argues that soccer culture grows from volunteers, civil society and club organizations, none of which can thrive in China considering that they are possible oppositions to the rule of the Communist Party.

"In China at the age of 12 or 13, when kids go to middle school, it ´ s called the cliff," he states. "Parents may allow their kids to play sports when they ´ re more youthful, but as quickly as it pertains to intermediate school the academic pressure is on - things like sport go by the wayside."

To be fair, the Chinese women's group has done better than the males. China completed runner-up in the 1999 Women's World Cup but has actually faded as European teams have actually surged with built-in competence from the guys's game. Spain won the 2023 Women's World Cup. China was knocked out early, battered 6-1 by England in group play.

China has succeeded targeting Olympic sports, a few of which are fairly unknown and rely on repetitive training more than imagination. Olympic team sports like soccer deal just one medal. So, like many countries, China focuses on sports with several medals. In China's case it's diving, table tennis and weight-lifting.

"For youths, there's a single worth - testing well," states Zhang, the analyst and journalist. "China would be OK if playing soccer were just about bouncing the ball 1,000 times."

Li Tie, the national group coach for about two years starting in January 2020, was in 2015 sentenced to twenty years in prison for bribery and match fixing. Other top administrators have also been accused of corruption.

The graft also reached the domestic Super League. Clubs spent millions - perhaps billions - on foreign talents backed by many state-owned services and, before the collapse of the housing boom, real-estate developers.

The poster kid was Guangzhou Evergrande. The eight-time Super League champs, when coached by Italian Marcello Lippi, was expelled from the league and dissolved previously this year, not able to settle its financial obligations.

Zhang states business people invested in expert soccer groups as a "political homage" and cited Hui Ka-yan. The embattled property designer financed the Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club and utilized soccer to win favor from political leaders.

Residential or commercial property giant Evergrande has accumulated debts reported at $300 billion, reflective of China ´ s damaged residential or commercial property segment and the general health of the economy.

"China ´ s failure at the global level and corruption throughout the game, these are all aspects that lead parents away from letting their kids get involved," states Simons, who founded a youth soccer club called China Club Football FC.

"Parents look at what ´ s going on and concern if they want their kids to be involved. It ´ s unfortunate and aggravating."

Wade reported from Tokyo and Tang from Washington.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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