The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[footyskillz]

It's a case you can't beat them join them. The premier league grand is established so it's a hard task that's for sure. However the Asia trophy premier league each summer and that 39th game can see being played in Asia.  Also it's a case of China being a market leader in football and that's essentially what I argue.  I argue it will be within 15 years.
I give that the premier league brand is world renown so I may reconsider that it will be the main league but will be within sights of epl. If not taken over .

[ChicagoLion]

you see footy, people and I mean very rich people don't want to live in China.Why would they when you can earn a very good living in Italy Spain France and increasingly the USA.
If you think that China can take over these places with indigenous players then that is not going to happen.
China has a massive disadvantage , it's China.

[godzvilla]

Looks like all those years of our youngsters flying the Club Flag so successfully  in the Hong Kong Sevens are finally paying off............Godzvilla!

[john e]

Remember 30 years ago when every said an African side would win the World Cup soon

[OCD]

Remember 30 years ago when every said an African side would win the World Cup soon

There's a slight economic difference between China and African countries. I read something the other day about how China is putting football on their national curriculum, they want to have 20,000 soccer schools build by 2020 and McGrath knows what else.

[Ads]

Children between 7-12 have to play an hour of it a day or something brilliant like that.

[cdbearsfan]

Does that not get in the way of snooker lessons?

[footyskillz]

you see footy, people and I mean very rich people don't want to live in China.Why would they when you can earn a very good living in Italy Spain France and increasingly the USA.
If you think that China can take over these places with indigenous players then that is not going to happen.
China has a massive disadvantage , it's China.

Footballers are a different thing though

[footyskillz]

Remember 30 years ago when every said an African side would win the World Cup soon

Wasn't that pele who made that claim

[olaftab]

you see footy, people and I mean very rich people don't want to live in China.Why would they when you can earn a very good living in Italy Spain France and increasingly the USA.
If you think that China can take over these places with indigenous players then that is not going to happen.
China has a massive disadvantage , it's China.

Footballers are a different thing though

No. They are rich people as CL said.

[HK Villan]

Randy really needs to make sure he doesn't balls this up like everything else he has touched in recent years.  Just because a small, loss making pharmaceutical company happens to have Chinese state ownership does not automatically give them deep pockets or in any way make them good future owners. 

[villadelph]

Randy really needs to make sure he doesn't balls this up like everything else he has touched in recent years.  Just because a small, loss making pharmaceutical company happens to have Chinese state ownership does not automatically give them deep pockets or in any way make them good future owners.

What's it matter to him?

[Pat McMahon]

With due respect gabby could command a 12-15 million fee

With respect, he couldn't.

He could command that fee Chris. Just not in GBP.

[OCD]

Gabby at his best, when he had Carew as a partner, might barely have been worth £12-15m in today's prices. To say that a fat, unprofessional twat who has no passion or commitment for what he's paid to do and has probably averaged a goal every 6 months is worth £12-15m, even in today's prices, is a ridiculous statement frankly.

[Pat McMahon]

To date the Chinese have gone about football the wrong way - trying to buy expensive foreign players with no real focus on youth development, so no real foundations for the game.

They have publicly stated this will change, and I reckon they will make a decent fist of It in terms of investment and coaching, but they have to first overcome the fact that it is not yet a major sport in China ( where in team sports basketball rules) and, as yet, the Chinese do not excel at team sports ( look at China's success in the medals table of the Olympics and then compare with Chinese team success in any sport you can think of). The  one child policy has not helped produce kids who work well together, and relaxation of that policy should help produce more rounded, less selfish kids and, logically improve team sports too.

All of this will take time, in my opinion more than a decade before we see any tangible change, by which I mean more kids playing organised football and attending matches. Qualifying for tournaments will come next - China has only qualified for one World Cup, in 2002.

Shanghai Shenhua, in a city of 24 million people, play in front of crowds of around 20,000. But  one of the great truisms of sport there is that the size of the population is such that even a small percentage of kids excelling at a sport gives China a bigger talent pool than any other nation.