China

The Chinese national football team (), recognized as China PR by FIFA, is the national association football team of the People’s Republic of China and is governed by the Chinese Football Association. The team is colloquially referred to as “Team China” (), the “National Team” () or “Gu z ” (, short for , which means “national football”). The team was founded in 1924 by the Republic of China and joined FIFA in 1931. Following the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Football Association was formed in the newly founded People’s Republic of China. They remained affiliated with FIFA until 1958, when they withdrew, but they rejoined the organization in 1979. After the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom in 1997,and Macau from Portugal in 1999, these two special administrative regions have continued to have their own separate national teams which play as “Hong Kong” and “Macau, China” respectively. China has won the EAFF East Asian Cup twice in 2005 and 2010 and have been runners-up at the AFC Asian Cup twice in 1984 and 2004. Although China failed to score a goal in their FIFA World Cup debut appearance during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, losing all their matches, just qualifying for the tournament has been considered the greatest accomplishment in the country’s football history. Though modern football lacks a long history in China, there were an estimated 250 million viewers for the 2004 AFC Asian Cup Final, the largest single-event sports audience in the country’s history at that time.