Stefan Szymanski, a professor from Michigan University, was lately interviewed by NIKKEI, a Japanese media organization.

He is known as an expert in football for he has worked out several books on football. He lately shared his opinions with NIKKEI on a few topics including the development of China’s football leagues along with the impact of it and the possibility of a potential Pacific Rim football league.

In terms of the China’s football leagues, Szymanski had a strong belief in a bright future of the football leagues in China mainly for the following reasons.

For one thing, there is an increasing number of entrepreneurs who would potentially invest into football clubs.

For another thing, leaders in China are fond of football as well and they are interested in holing FIFA World Cup in China. Moreover, FIFA is very supportive to the idea of holding World Cup in China.

However, Szymanski also named a few challenges that China’s football leagues would need to face and overcome. Firstly, corruptions related to football gambling need to be eliminated. Secondly, younger overseas football players are more suitable to enhance the leagues than those aged players who will not reach their peaks anymore.

When asked the impact of improved China’s football leagues, Szymanski told NIKKEI that they might leave a positive impact on Japanese football or even on Asian football.

As he explained, if there is a large number of quality footballers play in China’s football leagues, it would attract attentions from both fans and investors to Asian football, leaving a positive impact on the development of football in Asia.

In the interview, he denied the possibility of potential Pacific Rim football league among clubs from Asia, USA and Australia due to time differences which would trouble TV broadcasters in making profits.

But he did mention a more practicable proposal of football league among clubs from China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

To conclude, Szymanski has a belief in the future of China’s football leagues and the improved China’s football leagues, with more quality players and investments, will have a good impact on Asian football.

Source: cn.nikkei.com