China football talent left sat on sidelines as game is ruined, ex-captain Li says

Ex-China player says Serbian coach Bora Milutinović’s contract not being extended despite qualifying for 2002 World Cup is case in point

Former international Li Weifeng said that one major problem in Chinese football was that people without the right skills were occupying management positions in the sport while professionals with expertise were not given enough opportunities.

Speaking during a live broadcast on his personal channel, Li, who retired as a player in the summer of 2015, said the discontinuation of head coach Bora Milutinović, who had guided China to their only Fifa World Cup appearance to date in Japan and South Korea in 2002, was a classic case in point.

Contrary to the usual practice after a coach delivers historic results, the Serbian tactician instead did not receive a contract extension from the Chinese Football Association after the World Cup, where his team lost all three group matches against Costa Rica, Brazil and Turkey.

Li, a long-serving national team member from 1998 to 2011, said that in the football environment at the time, high-quality practitioners outside the established system could not secure their positions on professional merit alone.

Instead, social connections were a significant influencing factor, making it difficult for top external talent to establish themselves in the long term.

Asked about the departure of Milutinović during the live broadcast, Li briefly paused for a few seconds, before saying: “Bora is too capable, and he has too many ideas of his own.”