No good players from bad league

Liao Lisheng, a member of the National Olympic Soccer Team, celebrites after shotting a goal in Henan province,China. [Photo/IC]

China's under-23 men's national soccer team, or the national Olympic soccer team, lost to Syria, all but ending its hopes off competing in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. People's Daily attributes the failure to the domestic Super League, in which players are well-paid without having to work hard:

A motto says: Never repeat your mistakes. However, the national Olympic soccer team has decided to do just that - by losing first to Qatar, then to war-torn Syria, even though the latter has had no training since October and has suffered much travails.

Actually, the Chinese team scored a goal five minutes before half time, yet the team's risky offense granted their opponents an opportunity to strike back. In the second half, the team turned to the other extreme by giving up offense and hoping to limit the damage to a score that would not bring too much shame. It was bad tactics that made them lose.

The mistakes the players made can hardly associate them with the handsome pay they get playing for their teams in the domestic Super League. The first goal Syrian team scored was simply because a Chinese player sent the ball to a Syrian player when he made the wrong judgement and passed the ball the wrong way. It is not because the rival teams played so well but because the Chinese team played so poorly. The national Olympic soccer team was not defeated by their rivals but by themselves.

This is not the first time that the team has suffered such a failure and it is even said it has "become accustomed" to failure. This is primarily because of the domestic Super League, from which well-performing players were selected for the national team. In the Super League, the players are paid well even for bad performances, and they only win games thanks to star guest players. Their ability remains low and that's why they always lose international matches.

Technique is one thing, and dedication is another. From how the players performed on the field, we have enough reason to cast doubt on whether the players care much about competitions. Why should they? The national team's failure to qualify to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will not have any impact on their positions in their domestic teams, and they will still get handsome pay and may be even higher pay as they have played in the national team.

It is time to reform the Super League. If it continues in the way it has up to now, there will only be more bad-performing players and the bubble of illusive prosperity will explode one day.