OT? Maybe not because the video points out the weakness of the Chinese regime/economy.
For the fun of it I asked AI “How weak is China afraid of FIFA and Messi?” It gave the opposite answer:
China is not “afraid” of FIFA or Lionel Messi; rather, Beijing exercises immense leverage over both, and their relationship is entirely driven by economic statecraft and political pride.
After watching this video, what do you think?
I used to watch Messi when he played for Barcelona but now he does not show up in my feeds.
I’ll be honest, I couldn’t suffer through the entire video.
Politics have always been an underlying theme to most World Cups. The fact that China is censoring Messi content isn’t surpising given the described history of them feeling snubbed by him.
China’s team sucks, they typically don’t qualify for the Cup. That’s probably even more frustrating this year when everybody and their mom is playing in the expanded bracket. The commentary in the video explains that the reason for China’s football suckiness stems from their rigid system that doesn’t allow for individual creativity and genius.
If that’s true, you’d think that would spill over into other areas, like science and technology. It doesn’t. The main reason for China’s football suckiness is more likely rooted in their shatty youth development program.
That’s precisely the lesson the US has failed to learn. This is demonstrated by the many USMNT players who either grew up in other countries, or developed their skills in far better youth development systems outside the US.
For some reason, US college teams aren’t that good. So the top US players come up in club systems, which are expensive, and therefore exclusive. We just don’t have a good feeder system.
In my back yard in Porto, in what was supposed to be a tennis court, I see kids playing mostly football, the kind you kick the ball with your feet or bounce off your head. No helmets, no knee pads, just ordinary clothes. A tomboy plays with the boys and is pretty good at it. Mothers play with their kids. Haven’t seen a serious injury in seven years. Maybe America worries about the wrong things.
In contrast to the men’s team, the USWNT is top notch. It is either the best or among the best teams in the world every year. Title IX requires colleges provide equal funding for men’s and women’s sports so colleges spent a lot of money developing women’s soccer programs, and so college women’s soccer teams are really good.
Interestingly, soccer is the most popular youth sport in the US (12 and under), so there is plenty of interest, but there just aren’t many pathways for men to get elite coaching and competition.
