Professional football in China: the past, present, and future

Peng, Qi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8730-4458 (2023) Professional football in China: the past, present, and future. In: Routledge Handbook of Sport in China. Routledge International Handbooks . Routledge, New York, pp. 127-134. ISBN 9781032068206 (hardback); 9781003204015 (ebook)

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Abstract

This chapter describes football as a barometer for the history, presents, as well as possible future directions for Chinese professional sport development. In different disciplines such as sports management, sports sociology, and economics, the term of professionalisation is conceptualised with notable discrepancy. The professional team sports industry is a complex micro-economy, consisting of a set of interdependent markets. Teams buy the services of players and coaches. The Chinese football professionalisation trajectory can be encapsulated into three stages, i.e., the past (1992-2014), the present (2015-2021), and the future (2021 onwards), based on the systematic professionalisation of the sport. Between 2016 and 2017, with the increased capital injected into the Chinese professional football market, some big Chinese Super League clubs were on a spending spree in the attempt to attract a number of star football players from overseas. The future of Chinese professional football’s continued development will require determination, patience, and collaboration from all actors within the football community.