Three months before Li Tie’s sentencing, Chinese football had suffered a blow, with a 7-0 defeat by bitter rivals Japan in World Cup qualifying.
“This is like England getting hammered by Germany,” says Dr Gow.
“Fans were angry, but they were more exasperated. Exasperated at the state of the game, and exasperated at the level of corruption in the game.”
When Xi set out his football plan in 2016, it led to a wave of investment from Chinese private investors in British and European clubs.
The Chinese Super League (CSL) had its own resurgence, with wealthy owners pumping money into clubs to finance moves for players such as Oscar, from Chelsea, and Hulk from Zenit St Petersburg.
Now, only two Chinese investors have overall control of professional clubs in England – the Fosun International Group at Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Dai Yongge, whose tenure at Reading has been beset by financial crises and successive points deductions.
And clubs in the CSL are counting the cost of their transfer spending, with Guangzhou Evergrande, who won eight domestic titles and two Asian Champions Leagues between 2011 and 2019, forced into liquidation in January as a result of unpaid debts.
“A lot of entrepreneurs used the China football strategy as a pretext to move money out of China,” Dr Gow says.
“It’s very difficult to get your money out of China, so they seized on this opportunity that there was a national policy.
“Fairly quickly, within a two- or three-year period, the authorities came along and said ‘no, this is not what we want you to be doing,’ so they kind of closed the door on that outward investment.”
With the presence of Chinese investors dwindling at European clubs, and with the men’s national team still struggling to make inroads on the pitch, it is tempting to write off Xi’s ambitions already.
But those who’ve spent time in the country still feel the targets can be met by 2050, with China’s results in younger age groups signalling some progress.
“Never underestimate them,” says Dr Gow.
“When you have the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Republic of China, and they come out with a plan like this, they tend to deliver the objectives.”
