本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist《经济学人》2016年第9期，China版块。

Football

Big spending on foreign football players has a political aim, too

Feb 27th 2016

CHINESE demand for the world’s commodities[商品;货物] may be sputtering, but not for the most vital ingredient[1] of football: its players. In recent weeks, the country’s football clubs have been on their biggest ever spending spree[2], signing up foreign talent[3] for sums which, by Asian standards, have been jaw-dropping[指极度令人惊讶的,给人深刻印象的,或骇人听闻的]. One local newspaper in China said anyone who paid attention to Chinese football would conclude that the clubs had “gone mad”.

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[1]最重要的成分/要素

[2]消费热潮

[3]签约外国人才

▷sputter ['spʌtə]

to make several   （使）发出噼啪声The  sputtered  or  and then .汽车噼啪响了一两声就停了下来。

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Jiangsu Suning[1], a club owned by an eponymous[使得名的,齐名的] retail chain[2], broke a record on January 27th when it paid £25m ($35m) for Ramires, a Brazilian midfielder[中场队员] (known only by his forename) who had been playing for Chelsea[3], an English team. That was the most an Asian club had spent on a footballer. Seven days later Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao[4] took Jackson Martínez from Atlético Madrid[5], a big Spanish team, for $45m. Within a couple of days Jiangsu had smashed the record[6] again, paying a Ukrainian team, Shakhtar Donetsk[7], $53m for Alex Teixeira, another Brazilian midfielder.

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[1]江苏苏宁足球俱乐部

[2]同名零售连锁店

[3]切尔西足球俱乐部

[4]广州恒大淘宝足球俱乐部

[5]马德里竞技俱乐部

[6]打破纪录

[7]顿涅茨克矿工足球俱乐部

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By the time China’s two-month-long winter transfer-period[1] ends on February 26th, itstop-division clubs[2] will have spent a net amount[3] of around $300m (the amount spent on buying players minus the amount received for selling them). That is more than the combined net outlay[4] of all the clubs in Europe’s top five leagues during the winter period. The net spending of clubs in the English Premier League[5] was the second highest ($220m); those in China’s second division ranked third, at $55m.

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[1]转会期

[2]顶级俱乐部

[3]净额;净总值

[4]净支出;净产值;净产出

[5]英格兰足球超级联赛

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President Xi Jinping may be less inclined to[1] call this mad. Oddly for someone with so much else to worry about, from reviving a slowing economy to fighting corruption, he has set much store by[1] football. A year ago a committee charged with overseeing wide-ranging economic and social reforms[2] turned its attention to an area of great concern in the football-loving nation: its dismal performance[3] in the game. The committee, headed by Mr Xi, endorsed[支持,赞同] the Communist Party’s first ever plan for “football reforms” (with “Chinese characteristics”, naturally). These, it said, were aimed at ending the “backward” state of football in China and helping the country realise its “dream of sporting great-powerdom[4]”. The plan says the number of football academies should increase tenfold to 50,000 by 2025. It decrees that football be made compulsory at school.

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[1]set great, little, etc. store by sth

to  something to be of , little, .  or

认为…很重要／不重要，看重／不看重…She's setting a lot of store by this   - I only  she gets it. 她对这次求职面试寄予了厚望——我只希望她能如愿以偿。

[2]全面深化改革领导小组

[3]糟糕表现/惨淡表现

[4]中国体育强国梦

▷decree [dɪ'kriː]

to   that something must 法令，政令；命令They decreed an end to  on  of .他们下令不准再有年龄歧视。 The   has decreed that the  should .当地议会下令关闭那家医院。

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Football is particularly important for Mr Xi. He has been a fan since childhood. For a while after he took over as China’s leader his office, or at least the room said to be such in official photographs, featured the above picture of him as vice-president kicking a ball[1] in Ireland. Mr Xi’s reform plan says football can help boost patriotism[2] and a “collective spirit[3]”—attributes Mr Xi is keen to inculcate in a society fractured by[4] rapid economic change.

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[1]踢球

[2]增强爱国(主义)精神

[3]集体精神

[4]受挫;挫伤;断裂

▷inculcate ['ɪnkʌlkeɪt]

to   or  in someone's ,  by them often反复灌输；谆谆教诲Our   has  hard to inculcate a   in/into the .我们的足球队教练努力给运动员灌输团队精神。

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Chinese businesses are keen to play along. Four companies have taken over a first-division Chinese football club in the past two years. In October China Media Capital[1] (CMC), a venture-capital firm, agreed to pay $1.3 billion for five years of television rights to the Chinese Super League[2] (CSL), more than 25 times the amount paid by state television for the football season in 2015. (On February 23rd, the firm resold the first two years of rights at a 35% profit.) In December CMC bought a 13% stake in Manchester City[3], an English club, weeks after CMC’s chairman accompanied Mr Xi on a tour of the club’s facilities. Wang Jianlin, China’s richest man, recentlysnapped up[4] a 20% stake in Atlético Madrid. Dalian Wanda, a firm owned by Mr Wang, is spending millions of dollars on the coaching of 180 Chinese players at world-class facilities in Spain.

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[1]华人文化产业投资基金

[2]中国足球超级联赛

[3]曼彻斯特城足球俱乐部

[4]抢购

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Money talks

As well as signing up expensive foreign players, CSL clubs have been recruiting former managers of the English and Brazilian national teams. Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao employs dozens of coaches from Real Madrid[1] to train the 3,000-odd youngsters enrolled at its academy. The drawback of working for a little-known team can be offset[补偿;抵消] by a big pay-packet[工资,薪金] (Ezequiel Lavezzi, an Argentine forward from Paris St-Germain[2], a French team, recently joined a provincial squad[3] in China for a reported salary of more than $300,000 a week). The CSL appears likely soon to eclipse Major League Soccer[4] in America as a destination of choice for footballers who are more after money than prestige[威望,声望;声誉].

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[1]皇家马德里足球俱乐部

[2]巴黎圣日耳曼足球俱乐部

[3]省级阵容/队伍

[4]美国职业足球大联盟

▷eclipse [ɪ'klɪps]

to make another  or thing  much less , good or 掩没…的重要性（或优点、声誉等）；凌驾…之上；光芒盖过…The  has eclipsed all other  during this  .这次大选期间，经济问题成为压倒一切的重大议题

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Mr Xi sees the game as a useful tool of diplomacy (his overseas visits often involve football-related events). But China’s league is still a long way from exerting[运用,发挥;施以影响] the kind of soft power[1] that the English Premier League bestows[使用;授予;放置;留宿] upon Britain (ask any taxi driver in China). Mr Xi has said he dreams of China winning the World Cup. England itself has no blueprint for that.

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[1]软实力;柔性国力

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以上言论不代表本人立场。

摘自《经济学人》杂志，仅外语学习之用。

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