Life of Guangzhou - Expats' Football League: Spree of Sport, Beer and Friends 【with Video】

Missing the football leagues faraway in your motherlands? Itching for the ball game in Guangzhou? Just go to Tiyu Dong Football Pitch in Tianhe on Sunday evenings, where you can find a home with football excitement, your own team and a foreigners' amateur "Guangzhou Football League", the only one of its kind in the city!

Three foreigners launched this league in the autumn of 2005. It has been well kept annually ever since, bringing lots of fun and friends together on and off the pitch for those who are involved. It features European football culture with bars, beer and parties, as well as cross-cultural life.

July 1st witnessed its last round of play for this season and a happy award party for the season at a bar afterwards.

【More match photos】

Diversified football "community" for fun and friends

Every Sunday evening all the public pitches at Tianhe Sports Center in Tianhe are a world of action and tension between foreigners of various nationalities and ethnic groups. There is also a symphony of shouts in English, Spanish, Turkish, French and African to name a few. It is like walking into a community gala in a multi-racial foreign country.

Eight teams in kits rally and play between 18:00–21:00 each Sunday , according to James from UK, one of the founders and organizers of the league.

The teams are diverse. Four are respectively based in bars and cafés and consist of a wide spectrum of origin like UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, South America, Africa, Korea and even China. There is a Spanish team from the Commercial Chamber, a Turkish team of traders called Club Istanbul, and even a Chinese team from a housing complex.

Most players are white collar businessmen in Guangzhou; others are teachers, students and consulate officials.

The oldest player is a 40 year old Canadian, one of the best defenders in the league!

They hope to find an enjoyable escape from the busy world by playing football and making friends, according to James, a Villa and Chelsea supporter from Birmingham. "It is a great way to meet people and make friends in a new city by being in a football team", James' teammate Phil said.

Games of different styles 【Match video】

Matches are played with eight players a side on a half the normal size pitch. You have to run "around the world" in a small space, some players said. There is no offside making the games more attack oriented.

You can watch interactions of various football styles on the pitch. The British and the Irish bar team, Paddy Field, prefer quick long balls and are physical, strong and efficient in positional play. The Turkish and Spanish are skillful and attack minded whereas the Chinese are technical and quick, but lacking in teamwork.

Expats tend to play hard and are serious about the game, like a battle. James confessed that there were "too many red cards" in such "competitive and tight" matches. However, he thinks that, "people understand" and "after the game all are friends".

Some players used to be football professionals, and are the stars of their teams, such as Hakkan of the Club Istanbul.

Award party 【More photos】

Culture of bars, beer and parties 【Video of Award party】

Football, beer and parties are well connected for expats and also for the league.

Three teams are bar-based, including the final top two teams, Elephant & Castle and Paddy Field.

"It is a sort of British football tradition." James said, who is also the captain of Elephant & Castle. In the UK men like drinking and most amateurs who play football, do so for the pub they frequent the most – their local. There is a "Sunday League" for non-professionals in Britain. Pub teams will play against each other and go for a few beers after the match.

The British have exported this football culture to other countries and cities including Guangzhou. Some local Chinese have also joined the pub teams of Elephant & Castle and Paddy Field, and incorporated this culture into their lives.

After the games here in Guangzhou, most players like to have a drink and chat in a pub nearby. The climax of the season is the award party at a favorite foreigners' pub at the end of each season. The event is great fun and many of the players get legless.

Runners-up Chinese team and Chinese referees

In this foreigners' circle, there is one Chinese team called 'Jun Jing Garden'. This is unique as similar expats' leagues in Beijing and Shanghai don't include Chinese teams. Why involve Chinese?

Openness is the reason, James explained, "we want to be more inclusive and make friends with Chinese and they also play well".

"Jun Jing Garden" was a strong team in the league and actually became runners-up in the previous two seasons. Their skills make up for their physical disadvantage. However, they dramatically dropped to the bottom this season because they showed little intent for the trophy and rotated the team frequently in order that more could enjoy the play.

Their players all live at Jun Jing Garden, a local housing complex. This kind of estate-based team is popular in Guangzhou and contrasts with the pub-based expats' teams.

Chinese are more quiet and restrained than foreigners on the pitch, who often shout and are more aggressive and out-going, James thinks.

Four Chinese referees are in focus as well. Invited by Chinese players, they speak little English and have some communication problems with foreigners on the pitch. Their refereeing is well-received, though some players feel a bit annoyed with the poor communication during "heated" moments what seems to be, "more free-kicks given to the Chinese team"?

Another local group are the players' girl friends and supporters. Especially some Chinese girlfriends of Paddy Field players often cheer for the team, giving drive to their boys on the pitch, which included a big win over champions Elephant & Castle.[Video] James and another league founder both have Chinese girlfriends.

"Paddy Field"

Well-developed league with "transfers"

James, the League organizer.

It is the end of the Spring Season, 2007 now, the forth of the league. They have two seasons a year, autumn (September to December) and spring (March to June). Every team plays each other twice at the Tiyu Dong Football Pitch, designated as "home" or "away" on alternate Sundays, a bit like the Sunday League in UK.

They like to play in the evening and choose this pitch instead of previous Baogang Pitch in South Guangzhou. The charge is more expensive but evening hours are easier to book for the former, compared with the latter.

The league operates on players' personal entry fee of ￥4,400 (US$579) a season.

The league is quite stable and popular. Many foreigners play in the league for two years and at least eight teams play each season.

To my interest, there are "transfers" during the season, a player's girlfriend said. A player can join another team midway through the season, bringing changes to a teams' strength. Anyone can join any team to play in a season, James confirmed.

James said that the league has been developed and is more balanced in terms of team's strength in comparison to the first season two years ago, when five teams were strong and the other five were weak.

The league has run soundly and systematically so far and even has a sponsor for the award ceremony and its own website.

Many know of the league from the pubs, by word of mouth and from the website. However, more publicity is needed.

The league needs to be expanded and to involve more teams, maybe into two divisions, James and many players hope. But the biggest problem is to find enough pitches at a site for teams to play at the same time. They are also looking for more sponsorship to expand the league.

Party finale of the league 【Video】 【Photos】

After the final matches on July 1, most players and their friends swarmed to a foreigner-operated Irish pub in Tianhe and had a trophy presentation party.

They were happily shouting, singing, eating, drinking, clapping, cheering, chatting and flirting with excitement in the crowded pub. The Paddy Field folks chanted a proud chorus of "we are we are the people Paddy Field, people Paddy Field" to the tune of the Beatle's "Yellow Submarine". They deserved their joy and pride as they produced the biggest surprise of the season by soaring to runners-up!

Then came the award ceremony. Elephant & Castle won the title again while their forward Danielle made leading scorer. A new team Pink Pig Café came third.

Many at the party got very drunk on beer, success and friendship. A hot party on a summers night in Guangzhou, a "changing city and the best place to live" for James.

The players will rest for two months before the new season begins in September, maybe with an expanded league.

(By Ronald Li and Alan Devey)