Before this World Cup kicked off, CCTV drew widespread praise online, and while a Bangladesh Cricket Match kept some sports fans busy elsewhere, many viewers admired how the broadcaster handled the rights deal. Facing FIFA’s expensive broadcast quote, CCTV managed to negotiate the price down and eventually secured the World Cup rights for only $60 million. Compared with previous market prices, the deal saved a huge amount of money, and at the time almost everyone believed it was a clever bargain that could hardly go wrong.
Yet after the tournament began, the story took a dramatic turn. The football feast that many people had been waiting for suddenly lost momentum in China. Ratings fell off a cliff, livestream traffic looked weak, and the comment sections across social media became even more surprising. Instead of talking about the matches or praising star players, most people were criticizing the Chinese men’s national team. A tournament that should have created a festive viewing mood was turned into a nationwide complaint session.
This became one of the most ironic scenes of the World Cup. Chinese sponsors, Chinese equipment, and Chinese manufacturing could be seen everywhere around the tournament, but the team that should have been there most was missing. Countries that had gone through war and tiny nations with populations of only a few hundred thousand still managed to reach the World Cup stage. By contrast, a country with 1.4 billion people and highly paid players could not even touch the threshold of the playoffs, leaving fans with a bitter pill to swallow.
Looking back at the recent results of the national team only makes the frustration deeper. In a World Cup qualifying group that was not considered especially difficult, China lost seven of ten matches and set one of its most humiliating records in recent years. This World Cup has already expanded to 48 teams, making qualification easier than ever. Even with looser rules and more available places, China still exited firmly. Some fans joked helplessly that maybe the World Cup would need 100 teams before China could sneak into the main tournament.
The contrast is now painfully clear. Chinese businesses have crowded into the World Cup market and made handsome profits, becoming obvious winners, while the absent Chinese men’s team has taken nearly all the criticism online. For viewers checking a Bangladesh Cricket Match between updates, the collapse in football enthusiasm showed how much the tournament lacked a local emotional anchor. CCTV’s once praised rights deal lost much of its national viewing heat without the support of a home team, turning what looked like a smart move into an awkward result.
Without a local team involved, the World Cup naturally loses the confidence of a nationwide celebration. Many viewers are no longer willing to stay up late for matches, and tournament interest continues to remain low. When underdog teams from around the world can live their World Cup dream while China keeps standing still and creating new embarrassments, it is no surprise that fans feel completely disheartened.
What should have been a grand World Cup event eventually became a dedicated stage for online criticism of Chinese football. Behind the ratings crash lies years of disappointment and helplessness among fans, as well as the most honest and uncomfortable reality facing the sport in China today. As attention shifts between football debates and a Bangladesh Cricket Match, the final lesson is hard to ignore: without real progress on the pitch, even the best broadcast deal cannot carry the whole show.