However, the reason the Chinese national team’s performance has declined so drastically is due to several systemic issues. These include an underdeveloped football academy system, a lack of youth participation in pursuing football as a career, a domestic league recently shaken by scandals and the bankruptcy of many clubs, and the strong influence of politics, which makes players and coaches play too cautiously out of fear of being punished by their president. All of these factors combined are causing serious problems for the Chinese national team at the moment.
If they had been able to better maintain their football ecosystem from the start, perhaps these problems could have been avoided. Chinese football once enjoyed a golden age, with massive club investment and government support, which even attracted world-class players. However, corruption, dependence on investors, and various scandals have damaged their football ecosystem, and the impact continues to this day.
One would have thought that with the population of China, they would be able to discover good footballers who would perform well in global competition. But this is not the case because of government interference in sports administration. The sports governing body is under the influence of the Communist Party. And lack of autonomy will not allow them to do their work effectively. Sports like table tennis and badminton have been able to bring awards to China, but football is just struggling.