Brazilian striker Elkeson of Guangzhou Evergrande competes the ball with Sam Gallaway of Western Sydney Wanderers during the AFC Asian Champions League match at Tianhe Sports Center in Guangzhou. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese government officials are mulling the possibility of naturalizing foreign soccer players in China, amid protests of experts saying such a move is “impractical” and will potentially weaken the development of the sport in the country.
"We have discussed naturalization of foreign football players with public security departments," Zhang Jian, vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), told the local press on Saturday.
Zhang did not reveal details of the discussion, only saying that the naturalization of foreign players is a "sensitive topic."
The naturalization of foreign players, which involves several Chinese laws and regulations, is still being studied by relevant government departments and cannot be accomplished immediately, CFA President Cai Zhenhua said in an interview with the Tianjin newspaper in December.
The recent lukewarm performance of homegrown soccer players has disappointed fans and observers, who believe introducing foreign players will spur the competitiveness of China's national soccer team.
Although foreign soccer players are welcome in Chinese soccer clubs, it will be difficult for them to play under the national team due to strict rules of FIFA and China's tough naturalization policies, the Global Times said in a report on Monday.
Under FIFA's rules, foreign players need to assume nationality of a country before they can represent it in international tournaments.
"Even Chinese green cards are quite hard to obtain for foreigners, let alone citizenship," Ma Dexing, deputy editor of Changsha-based Titan Sports, told the Global Times.
Ever since China's green card policy was introduced in 2004, only 4,752 people have achieved permanent resident status as of 2012, the state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported in 2014.
Based on regulations for the permanent residence of aliens in China, only outstanding soccer players can get a chance to become a Chinese citizen, the report said.
Liu Guofu, an immigration law expert from the Beijing Institute of Technology, also noted China's lack of dual citizenship laws.
"Outstanding players may find it hard to give up their original nationality just for representing the Chinese team," he said.
Even if they are willing to give up their original nationality, FIFA's stringent rules will make the naturalization process impractical, Ma said.
FIFA regulations stipulate that a foreign player must have lived for at least five consecutive years after reaching the age of 18 within a foreign country in order to play for the national team in international soccer matches.
Introducing foreign players may dampen China's soccer development, as it will not solve fundamental problems such as the relatively slack management of the industry, Ma said.
