China fans frustrated by World Cup failure
Reuters - Wednesday 16 November 2011, 04:46
Chinese football fans were
left frustrated after their national team's slim hopes of
qualifying for the 2014 World Cup were snuffed out on Tuesday,
despite a 4-0 win over Singapore.
Iraq's victory over Jordan in Group A put qualification out
of reach for the Chinese, who had hired Spanish coach Jose
Antonio Camacho in August ahead of the third round of Asia zone
qualifiers.
"I really want to beat my breast in agony," Zhang Peiliang,
25, told Reuters in downtown Beijing on Wednesday.
"We lost out on a ticket for the 2014 World Cup even though
we have famous Spanish coach José Antonio Camacho. The result
cannot be accepted by depressed fans.
"Who knows when the next time will be for China's team to play in the World Cup."
China has qualified for the World Cup finals only once when
they played in the 2002 edition held in South Korea and Japan
but lost all their group matches and failed to score a goal.
In January, they exited the 16-team Asian Cup at the first
hurdle after finishing third in their group behind Uzbekistan
and hosts Qatar.
Chinese football has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent
years and disaffected fans have turned away from the game amid
corruption scandals, match-fixing and violence on and off the
pitch.
Fans also voiced their anger on Chinese micro-blogging site
Weibo.
"What's the point of victory over Singapore with four
goals?" Weiwei jueye wrote. "It seems like food is available
shortly after starving people died minutes ago; water is here
right after a burning house collapsed."