Why is 2025 said to be a disastrous year for Chinese football?

TPO - The Chinese team has officially closed the door to the 2026 World Cup finals after they were defeated in Indonesia. The 0-1 result extended the series of unforgettable matches that the representatives of the billion-people country had in 2025, even though only half a year had passed.

First is the failure of the national U17 team. Young Chinese players have been invested heavily in their ambition to participate in the U17 World Cup, especially when from the 2025 Asian Cup, teams only need to pass the group stage to qualify for the World Cup.

While their opponents had not yet gathered, they had already had 2 months of training and competing abroad. But in the end, U17 China lost both of their first two matches and soon said goodbye to their World Cup dream. The victory over Thailand in the final match was only meant to save their honor.

The U20 team of this country was the host of the Asian Cup. They did quite well when they advanced through the group stage. However, in the first knockout round, China lost to Saudi Arabia and also missed the U20 World Cup target.

The latest, and most painful, was the 0-1 defeat of the national team in Indonesia. Although the opponent had upgraded its squad with a series of naturalized players from Europe, the way the Chinese team lost in Indonesia still left countless sighs.

This team was at a disadvantage throughout the match, only threatening the opponent's goal once. The 0-1 loss meant that the Chinese team failed to score any goals in their last 3 appearances. They have an unforgettable record in the 3rd qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup when they became the team that conceded the most goals with 20 times.

Those details further embellish the team's forgettable ending, an ending that, according to the tradition of the billion-people country, was "even worse than the nightmare night in Hanoi 3 years ago," quoted by Titan newspaper.

Thus, all 3 men's teams that have set out since the beginning of 2025 have failed miserably. Chinese football has always invested heavily to improve quality, and is not afraid to naturalize (most recently Serginho), but the results they have achieved have only gotten worse.

Shandong Taishan Club withdraws from Asian Cup 1, causing China to lose a place in next season's competition

Not only at the national team level, Chinese clubs have also lost their position seriously in the continental arena. In the recent Asian Cup 1, they had 2 representatives and both were disappointing, one team even withdrew (Shandong Taishan). It is not surprising that Chinese representatives lost to opponents from Japan or Korea, but the fact that they were inferior to clubs from Malaysia or Thailand is considered an indescribable shame.

It was even more forgettable when China lost their place in the Champions League next season to Thailand. Currently, on the AFC club rankings, they are only ahead of Vietnam.

In total, in the first half of 2025, Chinese representatives suffered 4 defeats in all competitions, 3 at the national team level and 1 at the club level. These were all fatal slaps to this ambitious football industry. It can be affirmed early that 2025 is a year of disaster for the billion-people football industry.

Dang Lai

Source: https://tienphong.vn/vi-sao-noi-2025-la-nam-tham-hoa-cua-bong-da-trung-quoc-post1749041.tpo