CHINA:While football pundits debate the ethics of the tackle from behind, the merits of the 4-4-2 formation, or the moral crisis caused by too much money in the game, China's soccer stars were told this week that communist philosophy, patriotism and ethics have a vital role to play in modern soccer.
Top Communist Party theorist Li Jianhua took China's men's and women's national soccer teams aside at training camp and gave them a 2½-hour lecture on how to use philosophy to "broaden their horizons and enhance creativity during matches". Philosophy has played only a marginal role in football thinking to date, although Monty Python cast Chinese philosopher Confucius as referee in a philosophers' football match between Germany and Greece.
In that encounter, Confucius penalised Friedrich Nietzsche for arguing that the referee had no free will. And the French writer and philosopher Albert Camus did, after all, manage to combine writing a thesis on neo-Platonism with keeping goal for Algiers university.
Prof Li, who teaches theory at China's Central Communist Party School, said the lecture was to make the players more creative in responding to situations on the pitch, and he cited the example of the South Korean team in the 2002 World Cup, who were very good at spotting opportunities that other teams did not see.
"This is a sign of creativity," he said.
The philosophy lecturer was invited by the sports ministry to the city of Kunming in Yunnan province, where the country's top players are training at altitude for the men's Asian Cup and women's World Cup this year.
The manager of the men's team, Wei Shaohui, said he reckoned his players could benefit from a dose of Marxist-Leninist philosophical musings.
"I suggested everybody come and listen," Mr Wei told the Beijing News.
As part of his efforts to broaden the team's mind, Mr Wei said he had also taken the men to see Zhang Yimou's new historical war epic, Curse of the Golden Flower, which would teach them "a sense of hegemony".
The players were initially sceptical, with one man saying he didn't understand much of what was said, but other stars thought the exercise helpful.
China is crazy about football but its talents fall far short of its ambitions, a constant source of irritation in the national media.
China's men are a lowly 84th in the world rankings but have qualified for the Asian Cup in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia in July.
The Chinese women's team won the Asian Cup last year but are still just ninth in the world, and are under pressure to do well at the women's World Cup in China in September.
Prof Li said he was not a big football fan himself.
"Due to inadequate time, I couldn't answer questions. In fact, I don't know much about football and was a bit worried I wouldn't know how to answer the questions, and I'd be embarrassed!" he said.