Chinese President Xi Jinping, an avid football fan, pledged in a 2015 document to revive the national men’s team, which had been plagued by poor global performances and widespread corruption in local leagues.
He’s unlikely to be pleased.
On Thursday, Japan handed China a crushing 7-0 defeat in a World Cup qualifier in Saitama. This brutal loss, suffered against one of China’s major sports and geopolitical rivals in Asia, marks China's most lopsided defeat by Japan and a historic low in World Cup qualifying.
China's national team coach, Branko Ivankovic of Croatia, called it a "most difficult night," as quoted in English by the official Xinhua news agency, which termed the loss "humiliating."
Wataru Endo and Kaoru Mitoma scored in the first half. Takumi Minamino added two goals in the second half, with additional goals from Daizen Maeda, Junya Ito, and Takefusa Kubo.
Reaction in China was muted on state media. The China Sports Daily published a brief story titled "China Lost to Japan in World Cup Qualifier" with few details.
However, there was more discussion on Chinese social media.
Zhang Feng, a journalist and commentator with a popular blog, was direct.
"Football cannot be boosted by singing odes or telling stories," he wrote. "It needs skill, and physical and tactical training. It cannot be accomplished through politics."
Tang Yinghong, a prolific writer with a large following, suggested football is not a good fit for China, which won 40 gold medals in the recent Paris Olympics to tie with the United States. Some of those medals were in sports like diving, which do not have a large global following.
"In my opinion, let’s just let football develop on its own," Tang wrote. "Leaders should not place high hopes on the sport, and the government needn’t give it a lot of care."
China has nine more qualifying matches remaining and still has a shot at reaching the expanded, 48-team World Cup in 2026, hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada. But even with the larger and weakened field, China might still not make it.
China has qualified only once for the World Cup, losing all three matches in 2002 and failing to score a goal.
China is No. 87 in the most recent FIFA rankings for men’s teams, just below the Caribbean island of Curacao (population 150,000) and just above the African nation of Equatorial Guinea (1.7 million). China’s population is about 1.4 billion.