FP’s guide to the 2026 tournament

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

This week, as the FIFA World Cup heats up in North America, we explore the state of Chinese soccer and why—despite repeated attempts at reform—it hasn’t found success on the global stage.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

This week, as the FIFA World Cup heats up in North America, we explore the state of Chinese soccer and why—despite repeated attempts at reform—it hasn’t found success on the global stage.

China’s Failed Soccer Ambitions

Chinese fans are once again lamenting the absence of their national team from the World Cup. The disappointment is particularly acute because this year’s tournament expanded from 32 to 48 teams, including a record nine from the Asian Football Confederation, in which the Chinese team competes.

China has reached the World Cup only once, in 2002, when it was eliminated from the group stage without scoring a goal. Though Chinese fans are used to seeing regional rivals Japan and South Korea easily qualify for the tournament, losing out to newcomers such as Jordan and Uzbekistan is harder to swallow.

The consistent underperformance of the Chinese men’s national team is somewhat puzzling. Soccer enjoys immense popularity in China, and the Chinese Super League is one of the world’s best-attended. Meanwhile, the Chinese women’s national team—the Steel Roses—has appeared in every FIFA Women’s World Cup since 1991, save for 2011.

There is no shortage of explanations for this dynamic. Analysts........

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