China's last drive to join the outer world : the soccer World Cup

On Friday 13th of June, 19 million Chinese were watching the soccer match Brazil-Croatia (3-1) in Saõ Paolo, opening the Copa do mundo or soccer world cup which is  the most fanatically followed soccer tournament in the world –the European version of “football”. This huge audience tuned in despite the late hour in china (4 am) and the fact that the national team had been eliminated and was not among the 32 teams in the final round. Due to the high price of the packages to the Copa (from 8000 to 126,000 dollars), only a few thousand Chinese can afford the adventure. The next best solution for these armies of frustrated aficionados is to join in bars late night, wearing the most glamorous teams’ jerseys (a hot sale on online shopping sites). Companies like UCWeb, an internet company from Guangzhou, provide days off and other facilitating provisions, “ to foster company culture”, as one executive explains. For many other fans, the internet provides fake sick leave certificates, their credibility varying with the price. In Shanghai for instance, at 16-48$ a piece, the document includes the name of respectable hospitals and the red stamp of public administration. Hospitals, on their own side, provide free verification.  The internet is taking the lion’s share on the Cup’s attendance: until the concluding match at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro (13th of July), experts expect 530 million clicks. Tencent alone, one of the major social networks (Weixin-WeChat is their main stream) sends 50 journalists, and all Chinese media together have sent no less than 500 crew-members. Tmall, the merchandizing portal, paid 23 million dollars to sponsor the ranking, and Nike paid 46 million just to be quoted systematically in the CCTV reportages. A number of industrialists also cash in, on low cost gadgets, like the national flags (400,000 printed), the “Faleco” mascots, and the “caxirola”, traditional percussion instrument have been exported by the millions. Yingli has equipped two main stadiums with solar panels and is the only Chinese sponsor of the Cup.  During the event, all kinds of soccer-promoting ideas are raised in China. In Shandong province in eastern China the city of Zibo claims to be the place of origin of the game. More than two thousand years ago on its soil, the Kingdom of Qi (-1046 to -221 bc) had created “cuju”, with ball and rules arguably similar to soccer. Cuju is then claimed to have spread to ancient Greece, and eventually England. Curiously, Sepp Blatter, the President of the FIFA is supporting the claim: understandably, he is one of the most popular foreigners in Zibo – less so in the UK.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.forbes.com