Effects of local and global orientation on popular support for policy strategies to create a stronger Chinese Men’s football team

The aim of the study is to explore and describe the support of Chinese football fans for policy strategies to create a stronger men’s national football team based on their local and global orientation. Drawing upon social theory of globalisation, we distinguish between football fans with local and global orientations. Using survey questionnaires, we investigated Chinese football fans (n = 546) support for five strategies to improve the men’s football team: controlling the number of international players, controlling costs with international players, supporting young national players, promoting academy system, and promoting naturalisation. Results show that globally engaged fans offer higher support for strategies to create a stronger national football in China when compared to all other groups. Fans support promoting young national players more than either controlling for international players or naturalising foreign players. Fans with a rooted cosmopolitan orientation are the ones who offer higher support for non-traditional strategies, such as naturalisation. Findings can have direct impact on how the Chinese government and sport authorities propose strategies to create a stronger national team.