Why Support the CSL?

I hear this question all the time from people around me. No matter how little Chinese people know about football, they understand that the Chinese national team is horrible and, as an extension, the CSL is pretty bad. This is not necessarily incorrect, but at the same time, the CSL, as a league, isn't so bad. When it comes to standards of Asian football, I really hope I'm not eating my words with this, but I believe at least 2 of the Chinese squads will do fairly respectable in the (Asian) Champions League and the CSL isn't far off some of the smaller leagues in Europe or the North American setup.

Sure, the CSL will never match up to the quality of play in England, Italy, or Spain. These games are on regular or pay tv in China on a weekly basis, meaning the Chinese football fan has a buffet of offerings on a weekly basis. If they can watch the best, week in week out, why support the (proverbial) worst?

The answer is simple, I have friends in Beijing who absolutely love Liverpool, who live an die by their weekly results. Except they've never been to Anfield, never been to Liverpool, never even been in the UK before. How can you feel so attached to a club that is thousands of miles away, without the first hand experience, without the group feeling? You can sit in the Den and watch a Liverpool match sitting in your jersey and scarf, maybe even find a few other Liverpool supporters around you or someone supporting the other team, but wouldn't it be more fun to just cross the street and sit inside a stadium and watch a match live?

And as a lover of football in general, especially if you want to see Chinese football improve, it requires supporting it, however indirectly it is to support the CSL. Perhaps its just me, but I'd much prefer going to Gongti and watching a crappy nil-nil draw between 2 CSL squads over watching an awesome 2-1 Premier League match alone on my couch in Beijing. As China is a huge country, you won't come across away supporters that often, but in almost every case, there will be games that you'll see a few hundred there. In Beijing, supporters of Tianjin, Shandong, and Henan will definitely show up in the capital and there are sure to be some other surprise away supporters in town.

Because of this, I've enjoyed the experience of just "being a fan", whether it be watching games in Beijing, Changchun, or Shanghai or in other cities around the world where I've stopped in and taken a look at the local game. It's interesting to see how Chinese supporters clubs are like their foreign counterparts and how different they are, how alike they are to other Chinese team supporters clubs.

Its about supporting the league, supporting the city, and having fun amongst other guys who are just looking to be a part of the crowd for 2 hours while drinking a beer, eating a chuanr, and hoping the home team pulls out 3 points.

Anyways, that's my plea for people to give the CSL a shot.