Amateur league's banter, passion win over nation

With no big name coaches and only a scattering of professional players, an amateur soccer league in Jiangsu province has captured the nation's imagination, largely through local fans' fierce passion and witty banter.

The 2025 Jiangsu Football City League — made up of 13 teams competing in the wealthy East China province — has become the most talked about sporting event in the country this summer.

In a nod to self-deprecation fans have dubbed it the Suchao or "Jiangsu Super League". But swelling attendances suggest this isn't far off the mark, with some crowds rivaling the 2024 Chinese Super League average of just over 19,400 attendees per match.

On Sunday, the Changzhou team, languishing at the bottom of the league after three consecutive defeats, found itself on the receiving end of netizens' taunts when it went down to fellow struggler Wuxi. With each defeat, online users had been humorously stripping away a few strokes from the character for "chang", gradually reducing the city's name to just "town".

Before Changzhou lost by two goals, two giant footballs were placed by fans in front of the Lingshan Grand Buddha in Wuxi to "embrace Buddha's feet at the last moment" for good luck.

"Changzhou lost the game, but the city won huge attention. No city is more popular than it now," a soccer fan from Wuxi said after the game.

"We people from Jiangsu are good at making jokes and self-mockery. Although each of our cities is independent we are still united in our hearts," he said.