If it’s about sports and there’s a China angle, we’ll talk about it in the China Sports Insider Podcast. Mark Dreyer is the China Sports Insider. He’s worked for Sky Sports, Fox Sports, AP Sports and many others, and has covered major sporting events on five continents, including three Olympic Games 2008-12. He has been based in China since 2007. Produced and hosted by Haig Balian, a journalist and filmmaker who hosts and produces The Beijing Sessions podcast.
On a jam-packed show, we discuss the latest drama with the Chinese men’s hockey team – who may still get kicked out of the Olympics (0:45). China gets its first F1 driver, as Zhou Guanyu joins Valtteri Bottas at Alfa Romeo for next season (6:07). Then we turn to a China tennis story that’s gone global: What’s going on with Péng Shuài 彭帅, and what does this mean for the sport of tennis in China? (10:26), [note: segment recorded prior to release of Peng’s alleged statement]. And, we talk about China’s latest results in their FIFA World Cup qualifying matches and where it leaves them. Spoiler: they’re still not going to qualify for Qatar (16:50).
This week, we also speak to Rowan Simons. He’s a familiar figure in football in China. In 2008, he wrote Bamboo Goalposts: One Man's Quest to Teach the People’s Republic of China to Love Football and founded ClubFootball, one of the largest youth soccer programs in Beijing. We talk about: the number of pitches built in China since a 50-point reform plan was initiated in 2015 (20:11), the issue with the campus football project (23:23), how bureaucracy hinders essential long-term planning in the sport (25:49), the different generations of football coaches in China and their different mentalities (31:16), why parents are the hope for Chinese football (33:34), the impact of the gaokao [China’s university entrance exam] on sports (35:20), whether China is potentially ready and willing to host a World Cup in 2034 (37:17), and why Rowan is cheering for China to qualify for the World Cup — and why he isn’t (43:16).
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