China lose 1-0 at home to SYRIA while domestic league forks out astronomical transfer fees
The People's Republic's vision to win the World Cup by 2038 looks further away than ever despite hundreds of millions spent on foreign mercenaries
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CHINA appear to have stumbled into the most English of problems.
Despite investing hundreds of millions into improving the standard of the domestic league, their national team is absolutely useless.
Forget Iceland, the 1.35 billion-strong country have today lost at home to war-torn Syria in World Cup qualifying.
The People's Republic sit 5th in a group of 6 with just 1 point from their first three games.
Qualification looks unlikely with only the top 2 teams going through and the 3rd place facing a double-playoff against an opposition from the other Asian group followed by one from North America if they win.
Earlier this week an exclusive SunSport investigation revealed the shocking state of football in the country.
Chinese players in the Super League are believed to be jealous of foreign imports who earn up to FIFTEEN times as much as them, while some foreign players have described their local team-mates as 'lazy'.
To make things worse, a system of segregation exists in the teams' pre-match build-up to Super League games.
At Shanghai SIPG for example, all Chinese players are forced to stay in the Regal International East Asia Hotel before home and away matches.
Yet not even manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has to join them, let alone any of the foreign players like Hulk.
The Brazilian, who hasn't been picked for the national side since his move to China, is now the world's 3rd highest paid player behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
While former Southampton striker Graziano Pelle rakes in the joint 5th highest salary in the world at Shandong Luneng, level with Zlatan Ibrahimovic on £13.6m per year.
All this is supposed to be part of a grand government plan which will see China win the World Cup by 2038, but so far the national team has just gone from one humiliation to another.
The Chinese have only ever qualified for one World Cup, back in 2002, when they were outclassed by Brazil, Turkey and Costa Rica and failed to score.
In the 2014 World Cup they were knocked out of pre-qualifying by Iraq and Jordan, two and a half years before the tournament began.
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Their opponents Syria, who won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Mahmoud Al-Mawas, have been decimated by the war and play home games in front of empty stadiums in Oman, 2000 miles away.
Many players from the country have been killed, defected to the opposition or fled abroad.
But boss Fajr Ibrahim says: “We want to fight all the world that is fighting us in Syria.”