by On a summer day in the city of Suzhou, around 40,000 people crowded into a stadium, while thousands of other public screens gathered to see the hottest sport in China – amateur football.
A balm for cynical fans, which have been emptied through years of corruption and inability in the professional game, the amateur leagues that appeared in China have drawn millions of spectators online, strengthened domestic tourism to less well-known areas and triggered a good-natured rivalry between cities.
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During the sold-out match in Suzhou near Shanghai, the home jumped out of her seats and cheered when the 17-year-old Kou Cheng scored against Yangzhou City in the second minute.
Many wore bright red jerseys and T-shirts with the characters for “Suzhou” and used paper fans to cool themselves.
“Compared to other competitions, fans are more passionate about here, and even if they do not understand football, the atmosphere is lively,” Qian Chunyan, a 35-year-old resident of Suzhou, told AFP.
The tournament started for the first time in the eastern province of Jiangsu, where Suzhou is at the beginning of this year.
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The live streamed games soon attracted millions of spectators on social media and put smaller provincial cities on the domestic tourism map.
This in turn has created a local consumption boom that gives cities in which hosts corresponds to an urgently needed postponement from years of lazy expenses.
The games that were originally sponsored by local companies such as barbecue restaurants have now supported themselves from large companies such as e-commerce platforms Alibaba and JD.com.
-‘Pure football’-
Fans of local amateur leagues said AFP that they were attracted to the simplicity of football, which were not weighed up by the great money sums of the professional game.
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“With widespread participation of the public and the minimal participation of companies, it is a pure form of football,” Wang Xiangshuo, a football fan from Suzhou, told AFP.
“Winning or losing doesn’t matter, purity is most important.”
Professional football clubs in China, also in the top super League, were plagued by match fixing and gambling scandals.
The abysmal achievements of the national team at international tournaments often make contempt and abuse of social media users.
President Xi Jinping said he wanted China to win the World Cup one day.
But this year the men’s team occupied the 94th of the world and they only qualified for the World Cup once in 2002 when they lost all three of their games without scoring a goal.
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The players in provincial leagues rely on students to civil servants, including the communist party secretary of the Dai Hu village party, whose appearances were presented by the state news agency Xinhua.
Local amateur tournaments are “a great model for community football that enables every citizen to have their own home team,” Jin Shan, a football expert at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told AFP.
“It brings football closer to the public.”
– tourism boom –
Local tourism has also increased due to the popularity of the league.
Since the beginning of May, the Jiangsu-Amateur tournament-love has been referred to as “Su Super League”-a growth of tourism editions in six cities in the province of more than 14 percent, according to state broadcasters CGTN.
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Chen Tianhu, a souvenir manufacturer in Nantong City, said AFP said that her colleagues hurried to produce Egretian badge with team logos and ice cream on the ice on the top symbols in the form of local symbols after they had sold out in a neighboring city of branded bag bags.
“The ice cream sold very well, with the first batch of a thousand pieces almost sold out,” said Chen, whose company only includes a dozen people.
“Our performance in the SU Super League gives Nantong a rare moment to shine,” she said.
Other provinces that are looking for their share in the amateur football boom appear in the footsteps of Jiangsus, with the province of Southern Jiangxi organizing a two-stage tournament this month.
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Social media trends in China often lead to unexpected locations that receive sudden visitors.
Travelers flocked to the Zibo industrial city in northern China in 2023 after videos with its regional grill style became viral.
“This year’s success (the Jiangsu League) is an unexpected joy,” Souvenir manufacturer Chen told AFP.
“I hope it will be a long tradition.”
TJX/Reb/DH/LB
