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Amateur football in Beijing

Beijing, 5th of May

The weather is getting pretty nice again here which means that lots of people are out playing football. Organised football is extremely popular in Beijing and there are many amateur 11-a-side teams. Most universities have a full size football pitch (zu2 qiu2 chang3) and there are often full size and 5-a-side pitches at the many sports centres spotted around the capital. Many of these amateur teams have been playing together since school and I'm told many Chinese guys join the teams as a way of staying in touch with old classmates. Although most matches are 'friendlies', games are taken very seriously and include a referee (cai2 pan4) and two linesmen. The pitch rental and match officials are paid for by both teams, usually costing around 500 Yuan (£33) per team.

Fighting football

Perhaps because of the close relationship between the players or the competitive nature of the games, fighting between teams is not uncommon. In fact I remember talking to a Singaporean guy studying in Beijing who was also a part-time referee. He had refereed games in England and told me that amateur football matches in Beijing were less physical than in the UK but much more likely to erupt in pitch brawls. On first hearing this I was sceptical, but having played in and watched many amateur games in Beijing, I've witnessed quite a few fights. I'm not sure why this phenomenon occurs, but it doesn't happen in other sports like basketball which is also widely played. Perhaps what makes this even more strange is that many of the names of the Chinese teams do not even remotely suggest ill feeling of any kind. For instance we've played against teams called the 'Friendly Weekend Football Club', 'Pork Bun Vendors' and even 'Happy Rabbits' (kuai4 le4 tu4 zi).

The Beijing Scorpions

Last year I joined an amateur football team called the Beijing Scorpions (xie1 zi). This was a team founded by James, a Canadian and Pei Ping Yang, a native Beijinger. Both are obsessive about football and more than a little eccentric, especially Pei Ping Yang. Pei Ping Yang - PPY for short - speaks English really well and is a university graduate (da4 xue2 bi4 ye4 le). Curiously, his self-given job title is 'professional lottery player' which he says is his full-time occupation. Like in England, China has a national lottery in which hopeful participants can win millions of RMB every week for the price of a 2 Yuan ticket (cai3 piao4). Every day PPY meticulously studies past lottery results and devises top-secret mathematical formulas in the hopes of winning the jack-pot. Needless to say we are still waiting for him to strike it lucky. But good luck (jia1 you2) to you PPY, certainly one of the most colourful characters I've met in China.

Year of the Dog football tournament

Last weekend we played in a two day 8-a-side 'Year of the Dog' football tournament which James organised after weeks of hard work. Three foreign teams and three Chinese teams were invited to participate (can1 jia1) in an event designed to promote friendship (you2 yi4) amongst Chinese and foreigners (wai4 guo2 ren2). The tournament was a huge success and played in a good-natured but competitive spirit. Each team played five games lasting 45 minutes in lovely spring Beijing weather. The Beijing Scorpions won the competition winning all of our games and playing some good football in the process - itself a testament to the fact that our team consists of players from all over the world including China, Kenya, Thailand, Canada, Korea and England.

Editor's note: Chris is writing Chinese words in 'Pinyin', Latin script, using numbers that indicate the tone of the word. Find out more with our course Real Chinese.

Sent by: Chris

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