China’s top football body said on Tuesday it planned to form a national e-sports team, a surprise foray into virtual gaming after a dismal performance saw the country fail to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
The new national e-sports football team will compete in “events organized by FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation and other organizations”, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) said.
The CFA last month sacked national coach Branko Ivankovic after a 1-0 defeat to Indonesia, a result that effectively dashed China’s hopes of qualifying for the World Cup.
But while China languishes at 94th in FIFA’s world rankings, two places below tiny Luxembourg, to the dismay of its vast fan-base, the country’s e-sports sector is booming.
In 2024, the industry boasted approximately 490 million users, generated $38.5 billion in annual revenue, and hosted 124 e-sports competitions.
At the 2023 Asian Games, China’s e-sports team secured four out of five gold medals. The CFA’s venture into e-sports sparked mixed reactions among Chinese football fans.
“I believe this might actually work,” one Weibo user said. “We have quite a considerable e-sports player base in our country, and the talent selection is relatively fair,” he said.
Others were less optimistic. “They have messed up football in real life and now they want to mess up football in e-sports,” wrote another.
