Saving the Beautiful Game: China ClubFootball
Football is the world’s most popular game and the man leading the charge to make the world’s most populous nation truly love the beautiful game is Rowan Simons! Fluent in mandarin and long term Beijing resident, Rowan is anything but your normal Brit abroad! China Club Football under his stewardship (along with Keith Bradbury) has grown through the years and is bringing the game back to the hearts and minds of millions of Chinese people.
Rowan has traveled from England to South America and eventually made Beijing his home. Such is his wealth of life experience that he has even written a fascinating book called ‘Bamboo Goalposts’ which chronicles his life in China and the challenges Chinese football faces. iCUBED.us tracked him down to ask him his thoughts on Beijing, football and the importance of sports in life.
Rowan Simons: RS
iCUBED.us Interviewer: Chris Lau
Date: December 2008
iCUBED.us: What is China Club Football and how did it evolve?
RS: Club Football is China’s first foreign-invested amateur football enterprise. We established it in 2001 to bring the joys of football to ordinary Chinese people and it has now developed into one of Beijing’s biggest sports networks with thousands of people enjoying the game every week.
iCUBED.us: China Club Football are passionate about grass roots and amateur football in China, where does this passion come from?
RS: The founders of Club Football all come from Britain which is the home of modern football. When we were young, we were all members of local football clubs near where we lived and we all made good friendships and shared adventures with our team mates. This type of club is very popular around the world and, since we live in China now, we wanted to share this enjoyment with people here.
iCUBED.us: China Club Football promotes youth football in the Beijing area. How enthusiastic is the response and aside from sports skills, what can people learn via the programs?
RS: I think the most important thing is that joining a football club teaches young people that the more responsibility you take and the better you work as a team – the more fun you have. Although every team has its stars, football clubs need people of all abilities and characters to work well and this is important in China where people of different backgrounds do not often mix or co-operate together.
iCUBED.us: The first generation of “Little Emperors” (children born under the one child policy) have all grown up! Do young adults in Beijing lead active and healthy lifestyles? How important is diet in leading a healthy lifestyle?
RS: Diet is probably one of the biggest differences between professional and amateur athletes! All of us amateurs could do better with our eating habits and it is important to have a balance. If you eat well and exercise by playing football regularly, you will be much fitter mentally and physically.
iCUBED.us: The Olympics have come and gone. What will the Olympics 2008 legacy be for Beijing and China? Has there been a greater interest in sports as a result?
RS: I think there is a greater interest in sports, but the real challenge is to build the facilities and train the coaches and administrators needed to capture this interest and develop it. One of the most obvious legacies is the restrictions on cars in Beijing.
iCUBED.us: At the moment, who is the number one Chinese sports star?
RS: I think we all agree it is Yao Ming, but one day he will retire. Many people are asking what will happen to interest in the NBA if China does not have such a huge star involved every week.
iCUBED.us: Which sports do you think are gaining popularity in China?
RS: Because of Yao Ming, basketball is growing very fast. I have also been interested to see that more and more young people in northern China are getting into winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding.
iCUBED.us: Given the perceived regimented training schemes for some Chinese athletes, do you think China has its own unique sporting culture?
RS: China does have its own unique sporting culture and this is one reason why it struggles in team sports such as football. Chinese sports culture does not place high priority on individual or private group efforts, but prefers to follow a national elite model controlled by the government. As football is a mass participation sport, China has to compete with countries like Brazil or Germany where football is organized and played widely at all levels of society.
iCUBED.us: Why does the Chinese football league have so many problems? How can these problems be overcome?
RS: The professional league was created by the government in 1993 and the clubs were sold to major corporations with good government relations. Usually, the professional league should be at the top of a football pyramid that gets wider and wider at the lower levels. However, in China, there is no pyramid and so no support for a professional league. The only way to solve this problem is to start again with the grassroots and Club Football is one of the organizations lobbying for these reforms.
iCUBED.us: You have lived in China for so many years! How did you end up making it your home?
RS: In my case, I had no plan to stay in China after my year as a foreign exchange student in 1987, but when I started working with China Central TV, I quickly decided that I wanted to work in China and try to encourage greater exchange through the media and through sport.
iCUBED.us: You are fluent in written and spoken Chinese! Was it hard for you to pick up and where did you learn it?
RS: Chinese is not an easy language for Europeans to learn and it is much better if you can study full time at the beginning. I first studied Chinese at Leeds University and we all found it very difficult at the start. Especially the characters! There is no shortcut; you just have to keep writing them again and again until you can remember them. Thanks to computers, it is much easier as we can use ‘pinyin’ to help us write.
iCUBED.us: Beijing is your home. What do you like about it?
RS: Beijing has changed a lot over the last 20 years, but it is still the same in many ways. After all these years, I still like the attitude of Beijing people – they can be very obstructive if they do not want to help, but very warm hearted when they do. People are like this everywhere, but I do like the way Beijingers go around the business of relationships and it is always a challenge to work your way through this maze.
iCUBED.us: What is your favourite thing about Beijing? Food, culture, etc?
RS: For food, it has to be ‘kaoya’ – Beijing Duck, but you shouldn’t eat it too often if you want to keep fit for football. I also like the park life in Beijing. In the summer, I often play Frisbee with a friend in Jingshan Park near the Forbidden City and there we meet people of all ages (though mostly old or very young). They are dancing or playing other traditional games and it is a very friendly and relaxing atmosphere.
iCUBED.us: You wrote a book called "Bamboo Goalposts!" What exactly is the book about?
RS: In the book, I use my own experiences in the media and sports to tell the story of football in China. Although it includes many funny moments, the wider theme is to question why it is so hard for China to love the game of football in the same way as people around the world.
iCUBED.us: What football team do you support and why?
RS: West Ham United. A very clever friend of my father was the first person to give me a football shirt when I was about four years old. He told me that this made me a West Ham fan and I have been unable to change ever since that time.
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