This was originally an old article in stock, but after seeing the shocking chinese football discussion environment, it was decided to add some content and sent it.
April 17, 2022, an ordinary day.
This day has passed a month since the last matchday of the national football team, and the next match day of the national football team... It seems that there is no definite schedule for the next one. On this day, even 48 hours have passed since the tragic case of the Chinese club in the AFC Champions League, and the word "national football" has been on the hot search.
What is shocking is that the reason why the national football team has re-entered the hot search is actually just a bad marketing number called "Mauro", who wrote an article with a headline containing the eye-catching news of "national football 0-12 Malaysian team".
After that, there are some familiar plots. Starting from the short video platform to the major social platforms, the marketing numbers have used the "national football 0-12 Malaysia" as the traffic password. What's more, I have seen an unashamed entertainment news marketing number, claiming that I am "a thief who does not die watching the national football team late at night, who knows how to lose another 0-12"...
I really don't know how the national football team lost 0-12.
Since the two top 12 matches at the end of last year, the national football team has always been on the cusp of domestic public opinion. Streaks, Vietnam, Pham Chi Ngai, sea cucumbers, white chopped chickens, walks, these keywords string together almost all the mainstream discussions about national football.
Behind these discussions, many insiders are talking about the issue of "criticizing the qualifications of the national football team": to be honest, I have never felt that football is not the patent of a few people, and everyone can criticize any football team, let alone Chinese criticize the national football team that plays on behalf of Chinese football.
Football is a public cultural issue that belongs to the public. From the day football left the doors of The English Public Schools, it has become part of the daily life of the broad working class. So it is obviously inappropriate to stop most of the public from criticizing football.
However, the discussion of "qualifications for criticism" actually lies at the heart of where are the boundaries of criticism? Or what kind of arguments do most people hold to "criticize" the national football team?
This is actually another topic.
When some Internet social platforms target data and hope to become a reading tool for most people, they should also assume corresponding public social responsibilities, at least trying to prevent the spread of false information.
There are two types of false information: some are completely false and fabricated, such as the aforementioned people who actually claimed to have watched the 0-12 Malaysia match of the national football team; others are some facts, such as writing that the defeat of the Chinese club is "Chinese football 0-12, the fiasco of the Malaysian team", the algorithm of the combined score is rare but there is some truth, and the second half of the sentence does happen, but when they are connected together, it implies that something did not actually happen.
Either way, however, such information is toxic — it's slightly less toxic in places like Weibo where social attributes are heavier, and stronger in places where reading attributes are heavier.
But some platforms fail to prevent or even influence the spread of such information. As of April 19, the date of my review, content that clearly fits the platform's "exaggerated headline" violation category is still getting new reading.
These platforms, under the banner of some seemingly attractive, attract more people to express their opinions and stories, but let those exaggerated headlines and false news spread widely. On some platforms, creators who rely on exaggerated and untrue titles have gained huge traffic and revenue, which has led to more and more successors finding shortcuts to get rich.
I've always believed that reading should be a content-oriented thing, not a data-driven thing. It is true that since the era of print media, there have been tabloids that rely on so-called exaggerated "yellow news" to attract attention, but in the era of institutional media, these contents still have a certain censorship system as a guarantee. However, in the self-media, all this depends on self-awareness.
Just like today, even some institutional media with a strict review process will have customized exaggerated headlines that are exclusive to certain platforms, but these still don't have much deviation.
For example, my article, on some platforms, the title is "Some Discussions on Chinese Football", and on other platforms it will be "Only if you understand the ball can you scold the national football team?" There is never a threshold for criticizing football." But I believe that every friend who reads my article will not feel that my text is wrong.
However, the title of "National Football 0-12 Malaysia" is indeed another matter.
This affects the basis of the "criticism" discussed earlier.
I believe that many people who insult the national football team must have made a judgment after seeing a lot of information. However, the information they received was "the national football team is all white chopped chicken", "the national football team eats sea cucumber women's football every day and does not eat enough", "the national football team is laughing after losing to Vietnam", which naturally makes the judgment of "the national football team is too bad how not to disband".
Just like this time about the topic of "national football 0-12 Malaysia", everyone who does not know Chinese football sees this title and naturally thinks that the Chinese national men's football team lost 0-12 to the Malaysian men's national football team.
If you put yourself in this position and think about it, a lot of insults are indeed natural.
They who accept this kind of toxic information will not know that this is a club game, they will not know that we cannot send the main force because of the epidemic prevention and control policy, and they will not know that even most of these players who are sent out have not played official games for several years because of the domestic prevention and control policy.
And a sensational headline, for those marketing numbers, is enough. Even those who have a little heart and click on the homepage of the "Mauro" will see the certification from the platform's "senior media people" - foolproof, an information cocoon that is completely controlled by them is thus firmly established.
It's not just football. The reason most of the discussion on the Internet today cannot continue is that the information received by both parties is completely unequal. When one party has access to only content from certain fixed and one-sided sources, while the other party has a more comprehensive understanding of things, the conversation is worthless.
Of course, this is beyond the boundaries of the topic that this article wants to discuss, and it is far from something that can be clearly explained in a few thousand words.
Another discussion about Chinese football is slightly more closely related to football: after the 1-1 Saudi arabia match of the national football team, the discussion about Yu Dabao's reception continued from the end of the first World Preliminary Tournament to the second, and even some related discussion words can be seen today after more than a month.
In fact, it has been a long time since I have seen a technical and tactical discussion about Chinese football. Think back to when was the last time I saw it?
Does Li Tie count? The controversy caused by Li Tie may not be completely aimed at the technical tactics on the field, but more of a condemnation of Li Tie's behavior against fans, against the media and about commercial endorsements on the field, at press conferences and on social media. I have always believed that the main reason for Li Tie's departure from office is not technical.
The attention of the Chinese Super League and the national football team began to gradually pick up more than a decade ago and has been until today, and this discussion about the behavior decision of Yu Dabao Stadium may be an unprecedented large-scale discussion about technical tactics.
However, this seems to be a coincidence: the reason why such a discussion appeared was because the marketing number and short video would be called "5 minutes on the stage and start walking" in Dabao, and then the traffic marketing giants in the football circle angrily scolded each other for not understanding the ball, and finally gradually became a technical and tactical discussion that at least made me feel rewarded.
I have shared some of my observations on the domestic football media and public opinion environment before - at least for the moment, the media that can enter the vision of most ordinary fans is still based on the transmission of information as its main function.
In recent years, for the national team and all kinds of clubs at all levels, the main responsibility of the team reporter is to share some "insider" information that is difficult for ordinary fans to reach under the authorization or even instruction of the club.
This is also the main reason why many domestic football journalists have begun to be questioned because of "half a sentence" and "vague language": some journalists and teachers I know are actually willing to speak, willing to share, and have a lot of their own thoughts, but how much of these thoughts can be seen in the majority of fans, it is indeed not under their control.
The discussion environment in the football media is indeed very bad.
Looking back, even if it was only a decade ago, even if it was already a headline party in the sports section of various portals, at least most of the content was solid, or at least there was an increase in information.
Today, after "recommendation" has become the main way for users to obtain information on various platforms, after publishing information and obtaining traffic has become almost zero threshold, we have indeed gained a lot of high-quality content producers, but at least in the field of football, more so-called "creators" are driven by traffic and data as the first driver - such as the aforementioned "Mauro".
Of course, in such an environment, the original institutional football media can only succumb. This is the kind of visible change mentioned in the previous paragraph: on various platforms, the same piece of content will use a completely different title.
But unfortunately, in addition to the headlines, our football media has gradually changed in terms of content.
What is visible to the naked eye is that serious comments from front-line journalists have gradually disappeared, and self-media-style "comments" sitting behind screens have begun to spread wildly in the guise of exclusive reports, so that the number of football journalists who are really on the front line has not only dropped sharply, but also the "survivors" are cautious.
For example, in the discussion storm caused by Yu Dabao, media teachers, especially the reporters who are still working for some newspapers and television stations, really do not have much space to speak.
In this context, in this debate about Yu Dabao, the value of the position is greater than the value of the point of view, which seems to be a natural thing.
When the fans discussed, they labeled all the speakers one by one; many media also seemed to stand on the team first when speaking: understanding Dabao's and opposing Dabao's looks were clear, and the communication between them became attacks and insults: one side attacked the other party's "ball blindness" and "trolls", the other side said that the other party was "hard washing", and insulting Yu Dabao was "walking" and "no face".
Is position important? At least back to the discussion on yu Dabao, I think the position is not important at all.
On the facts, in terms of Dabao's choice, whether it is the professional coaches and players contacted by some media, or some ABC-level coaches around me, it is actually difficult to form a unified view.
Most of the coaches who are mainly in youth training believe that there is nothing wrong with Yu Dabao's reception method, and Dai Weijun's second breakthrough choice is slightly reluctant. Other coaches who have experienced the coaching staff of the adult team mostly believe that the main reason for the failure of this attack is that the two obviously did not form a tacit understanding.
It's just a difference in the understanding of football, because football doesn't just have one way of playing.
Personally, I have never been very fond of Yu Dabao before, but if I had to put a "walk" hat on Yu Dabao's choice, I would not agree very much.
In fact, this time the serious discussions about Yu Dabao are indeed very rewarding. Unfortunately, more people are caught in the strange circle and mud of blaming those who disagree with their own views, allowing the voice of name calling to overwhelm some well-founded discussions.
It would be nice if there were more reasoned discussions.
Sadly, over the years, in the discussions involving Chinese football, there have been fewer and fewer well-meaning, rational voices and less and less attention. Instead, a flood of emotional comments and even speculations took over.
Many people take "the national football team is not good mainly this year's fans" as a joke, but in fact, when the content and emotions about football are negative for a certain period of time, it is not difficult to imagine how this will affect the enthusiasm of the next generation to participate in football.
At least from the current point of view, the age groups that once grew exponentially in the number of youth training are now about to make the choice of whether to take a career path, but many people are discouraged by the survival of football and the public opinion environment today.
Therefore, how to deal with oneself in such a mixed discussion of Chinese football with emotions and rumors has become the most real confusion of a few people. I would be willing to pass on some good sounds, but a person's voice is always limited. When the mainstream voice is noisy and extreme, firmness is actually a difficult but precious choice.
I can only hope that every friend who is willing to be patient and read here can stop and think about it when participating in a discussion about Chinese football. When you see good, sincere, non-sensational texts and videos, pass them on to your friends who you feel can understand the plight of football.
To say that the plight of Chinese football is everyone's responsibility, I absolutely disagree.
But if we were to say that the bad environment in which Chinese football is discussed is the responsibility of each and every one of us, I don't think there is anything wrong with that.
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