Soccer debacle may have upside

The Chinese Football Association suddenly notified the clubs of all its three divisions in the professional league on Wednesday afternoon to suspend contract renewals with players for next year, as a new salary cap is to be enforced.

The move, which came after all the Chinese male national, Olympic and youth soccer teams were defeated on their respective fronts earlier this month, represents not only the Chinese soccer's top governing body's response to the nation's disappointment with one of the most popular sports in the country, but also the beginning of its latest efforts to put the development of soccer back on the right track in the country.

Before the Chinese national team was defeated by Syria in a key group qualification match last week, which reduced China's chance of making it to the 2022 FIFA World Cup Finals in Qatar from slim to slight, people still had faith the national team could do it, wishfully believing that, with a group of naturalized players coached by Marcello Lippi－who reportedly made about 1.47 million yuan ($209,000) per day when he worked for China during his second tenure before suddenly quitting his job after the loss to Syria－the team could become the pride of the nation.

The bursting of the bubble stoked by huge amounts of investment from real estate tycoons and State-own enterprises for nearly 10 years under the tacit consent, if not encouragement, of the last executive committee of the CFA, came earlier than expected.

Which is actually good news, as it has provided the CFA, whose executive board was newly elected in August, with an opportunity to cast aside the old practices that have made the men's national soccer team such a source of disappointment.

Yet it will not be easy to put an end to the old practices of nearly two decades of money-talks policies that turned into tools for a few to realize their speculative purposes.

Now is the time for the whole nation to push sweeping structural reform to eliminate all barriers hindering the sport's healthy development in the country and put an end to the false prosperity of Chinese soccer.

How to choose between an easy wrong and a difficult right should not be a question for any reasonable mind looking forward to the rise of Chinese soccer.