Football
Michael Church, Asia correspondent 8y

China boss Gao Hongbo urges players to boost football's growth

China coach Gao Hongbo has urged his squad to play their part in the continuing development of Chinese football.

With China preparing to take on Iran in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday, the national team has struggled to match the pace of the improvement in heavily-backed domestic football.

Gao, whose players aim to put the opening loss to South Korea behind them, said: "Chinese football turned professional in 1994 but since 2002 there hasn't been a period of reform like there has been in the last few years.

"We are now the fastest in Asia in terms of improvement, but the process is long and it takes time. Me and my team are hoping we can shorten that period and speed up the development.

"Our management team has a clear division of work. I'm responsible for tactics, our team manager focuses on team spirit and we also have the assistant coaches.

"We all try very hard to communicate with the players, to encourage them not only to do well for themselves but also for our community and our football industry."

While Guangzhou Evergrande have become one of the dominant forces in Asian club football and other clubs have spent huge sums to bring in the finest foreign talent, the national team has struggled for momentum.

China last qualified for the final phase of Asia's qualifying tournament for the World Cup during their run to the finals in Japan and South Korea in 2002 and have also failed to make a major impact at the Asian Cup, in which they last reached the final in 2004.

Gao said his team would be taking things one step at a time and added: "As I've said many times, football is a sport where you try to win and that is always our target.

"We are looking to do that in every game. But the process in each game varies, and we have to pay close attention to the details of each game."

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