...China uses an intensive and disciplined bureaucratic system modelled on the Soviet Union, scouting for children at an early age and plucking them out for full-time training at elite government-run sports schools. It’s a method which relies on rigid routine and repetition, meaning it excels in individual, not team-based, sport. In essence it is a machine with the single purpose of turning out other machines to win medals.
But,
Football doesn’t work like that. As a team sport, it requires creativity and innovation; authoritarianism seems almost guaranteed to destroy it. Football is an open and free-flowing game of countless permutations, relying on the brain as much as, if not more than, physique.
BOTTOM LINE: interesting link between a top-down, authoritarian regime and creativity/innovation.
A lot like how we select and train physicians in the US.
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