The Frenchman's arrival at Shanghai Shenhua coincides with an infusion of cash, a crackdown on bribery and the backing of the Communist party as football in China gets long overdue revamp
"Watching the English Premier League is so expensive it will destroy your wallet. Watching Chinese football is so frustrating it will destroy your life."
For most of the past 10 years, Chinese football has been a national joke. Sardonic aphorisms ? like the one above ? fill the comment sections of soccer websites. The national team is the subject of ridicule, referees are reviled for match-fixing and the sport's managing body is derided for incompetence and corruption. But that image is in the midst of a dramatic overhaul as the French superstar Nicolas Anelka becomes the biggest name yet to play for a Chinese club and the local Football Association attempts to purge itself with arguably the widest match-rigging trial in world history.
The 32-year-old striker ? formerly of Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Real Madrid ? has joined his new team-mates at Shanghai Shenhua this month on a rumoured �175,000-a-week, three-year deal that looks likely to herald an exodus of other foreign stars to the east. The contract, easily the most lucrative signed in China, is part of a nationwide attempt to rebuild respect for the sport with an infusion of cash, a crackdown on bribery and the backing of the highest echelons of the Communist party.
The revamp will be good news for football, but there is an outside chance it may force Anelka to start his career in China playing for a second division team. Shenhua face an ongoing corruption trial in Dalian that involves more than half the teams in the top division, as well as players, managers, officials, referees and the former head of the football association. Some may be penalised with relegation. So many clubs are implicated, that there is even talk of the entire season being cancelled. Sentencing in the trial is due before Chinese new year on 23 January.
"The CFA has taken this so high that they have to show they are serious with the punishments," says Rowan Simons, the author of Bamboo Goalposts. But they will also be reluctant to choke the recovery of Chinese football. After years in the doldrums, attendances are up, money is pouring in and ambitions are soaring.
In July, Xi Jinping ? who is expected to take over this year as China's president ? stated that he had "three wishes" for Chinese football: to qualify, host and then win the World Cup. The Communist party has instructed business tycoons to inject millions of dollars into club budgets. As a result, some Chinese clubs are offering higher wages than Chelsea and Manchester City.
Last year's league champions, Guangzhou, spent $17m signing Argentinian midfielder Dar�o Conca and Brazilian forwards Cl�o and Muiqui. Other clubs have snapped up Serbs and Romanians. Didier Drogba and Ronaldinho are among the names of those who could follow. There are echoes of Japan, when it launched the J-League in 1993 with big name imports like Gary Lineker, Zico and Ars�ne Wenger to boost the sport's status.
Anelka is expected to draw more people to games and generate revenue from commercial endorsements and TV rights sales. Currently, the state broadcaster CCTV refuses to pay for domestic matches because they are such low quality. Interest in second division teams is so low that clubs actually have to give the TV companies money to film their games. Anelka may have already changed that even before he kicks a ball, according to reports that a French TV company has offered $350,000 for live feeds of his games.
"This is the first time that China has invited such a big star. It is very good publicity. There will be a butterfly effect. Whenever people mention the name Anelka, they will think of Shenhua and Shanghai," said a club official, who declined to give his name.
The Frenchman has played for eight teams, including Arsenal, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea, winning a cabinet full of trophies and notching up 69 appearances for France. But he will have to adjust to a very different level. His new side performed dismally last season, finishing 11th in the 16-club Chinese Super League. China's national team are no better. They are ranked 72 in the world, having failed to qualify for the London Olympics and the 2014 World Cup.
The main problem is that connections and money have long trumped ability and graft. Recent exposes show matches could be bought for �200,000 and places on the national team for �10,000. Nobody is under any illusions that Anelka is moving for the love of the game, but there are hopes his professionalism will rub off.
"It's good to invite players and referees from Europe. They help to purify the Chinese football environment. They play more fairly and they talk more openly to the media. That will put pressure on the China Super League to change," says Wu Celi, a veteran sports reporter at Soccer China magazine.
Anelka ? who is not known for his charisma or forthrightness ? will also come under pressure to sell products, take sides in Shanghai's rivalry with Beijing, and answer critics who wonder how he can be paid more in an hour than millions make in a year. Even to a superstar used to the limelight in Europe, the attention could come as a shock.
"In London, there are five or six Premier League clubs full of superstars. In Shanghai he will stick out like a sore thumb. It will be him and him alone," says Simons. "How will someone so introverted cope with a job that is more about his image than his football?"
The past experiences of big name foreign players is not encouraging. Paul Gascoigne spent a miserable few months in Lanzhou playing for Land Reclamation Flying Horses at the dog-end of his career in 2002. The former Rangers star J�rg Albertz left after only a year with Shanghai Shenhua from 2003-04 because of concerns about match-fixing.
Long-term observers say the situation is now much better thanks to the corruption crackdown and the rising standard of living. But Chinese football still has many problems. It is losing ground to baseball among the young. There are few places where ordinary people can play. And it is under tight political control. Cai Zhenhua, the chairman of the Chinese Football Association, is also the vice-minister for sport ? a clear violation of Fifa rules about political independence and elections.
China's lively microblogs have buzzed with discussion about the changes that will come with Anelka's signing. Many said they were more likely to attend Shenhua matches. But there was realism about the impact one player could make.
"Maybe Anelka will attract more foreign stars to China and the league will be more entertaining to watch," said a comment under the name Ang on the Sina Weibo microblog. "However, if the China Football Association doesn't make it cheaper to play football at the grass roots then we won't nurture good new players so big name imports will make no more of an impact than a floating haze. They will just take their money and leave nothing behind for Chinese football."
Additional research by Cecily Huang
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jan/18/nicolas-anelka-shanghai-shenhua-china
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