Former England manager Roy Hodgson on Friday expressed misgivings that Chinese rich soccer league lacks substance beneath.
Hodgson, who was invited to attend a sports business meeting in Beijing, said he approved of Chinese Football Association's policy on limiting foreign players and encouraging the use of local young ones.
"It seems like a good policy, because there is always a danger otherwise that the Chinese league is populated with only foreign players, as a result, your national team which is very important to promote football within the country will be without a real chance of success," he said.
"Hopefully if the foreign players who are employed in the country and foreign coaches employed in the country are good at their jobs, then the Chinese guys who will play will benefit and will become better players," he said.
Hodgson advised Chinese soccer decision-makers to follow the right way to build up their league system.
"I think, first of all, it is important there is substance under the the Chineses Super League. That's where coaching is going to become very important at both levels, and I think two things need to grow together," he said.
"Otherwise, you'll run the risk of what happened in America in 1970s. They wanted to start and promote soccer in America and they got Pele, Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, all the top players in the world, but there was nothing underneath, and after one year or two the league collapsed," he said.
He reckoned that the Ameircans had learned the lesson and hoped Chinese FA could do the same too.
"Now the new MLS is their top level, good product, like your Chinese Super League. The difference at the moment is in America they start to get something below the surface, and that would be my concern for the Chinese FA. They should work very hard to make certain the football develped below the super league," he said.
Hodgson advised Chinese soccer decision makers not to have "just suddenly a league with a lot of money and the ability to attract the best players and best coaches in the world."
"But what happens below? that would be my concern," he said.
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