Among the Chinese soccer funs, no more than half watched China Super League (CSL) matches last year and only 6.65 percent of them had been to the stadiums, according to a survey.

 

"We usually watch those top-level matches such as Italy Seria A and English Premier League, because they are helpful to us. The CSL is comparatively lower in level, so we seldom watch it," said Hou Lijia, a young soccer player from Dalian attending the ongoing 6th Chinese City Games in Wuhan, central China on Tuesday.

 

At the Sports Scientific Forum of the City Games held last week in Wuhan, three scholars from two universities here handed in a report of "A Survey and Analysis of the Consumption Status of China Super League Audience", which showed the number of the CSL funs was too small as compared to that of the Chinese soccer funs.

 

The three scholars conducted a sample survey in six provinces and cities across the country, including Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Beijing, Shanghai and Liaoning from January to March this year. A total of 960 questionnaires were distributed and 758 qualified copies were received.

 

Most of the 758 persons were soccer funs and 406 of them watched soccer games last year, taking up 53.56 percent, but only 168 of them watched CSL and even fewer, just 27, spectated at the games.

 

The analysis indicated that the people were not fond of watching CSL mainly due to the low competing level, black whistles and scandals.

 

A soccer fun named Sun Wei in Wuhan said that he was quite disappointed with CSL. "The CSL matches are not so exciting, and the rigged matches and black whistles showed no respect to the funs," he said.

 

Lv Feng, the CSL manager, said, "The Chinese soccer market is still pre-mature. Clubs depend too much on shareholders' enterprise, and the audience remain unstable without much attraction to the young people."

 

"The lack of soccer culture in China is the one of the main reasons for the current situation of the Chinese leagues," said Lang Xiaonong, secretary general of the CSL Committee.

 

Lang said that the popularity of the CSL depends on high-level matches and fair play. "We will make efforts to improve the Chinese football and provide a good environment for CSL," said Lang.

 

It's a long way for China Super League to recover and bring spectators back to the stands, Lang admitted.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2007)