Dazzling but empty stadiums a symbol of China's fading football dream

BEIJING: Gleaming football stadiums built for the Asian Cup may turn into "white elephants" after China withdrew as hosts, experts say, with President Xi Jinping's World Cup dreams more remote than ever.

Ten cities across China have sunk billions of dollars to build eight new stadiums and renovate two others for the Asian Cup next summer.

But with the country sticking to its rigid zero-COVID policy and its biggest city, Shanghai, only just now tentatively emerging from a weeks-long lockdown, China pulled out of staging the competition last weekend.

"The Asian Cup was simply the prelude to a men's World Cup bid," Simon Chadwick, director of the Centre for the Eurasian Sport Industry at Emlyon Business School, said.

"But China's football ambitions appear to be in tatters."

Billboards proudly announcing the Asian Cup can still be seen around the Workers' Stadium in the heart of Beijing.

The historic stadium was torn down and is being rebuilt, the drastic revamp costing taxpayers US$484 million, per official data.

"With or without the Asian Cup we plan to finish the stadium as planned," a construction worker said.

Quite when football of any description takes place there is unclear.

The Chinese Super League is waiting to start the new season and when it does looks certain to take place at closed neutral venues because of COVID-19.

On the pitch, the national side again failed to reach this year's World Cup and there has been an exodus of top foreign players and coaches in recent seasons.

China has turned to big-ticket infrastructure projects to juice up its pandemic-stricken economy, the world's second-largest, and officials say that building glitzy football stadiums was part of that plan.

Some, like the futuristic 60,000-seater Egret