China weather storms and scandals at World Cup

A huge leap for women’s soccer as China prepare ground for hosting men’s edition in 2018.

Neither the threat of typhoons nor the whiff of off-field scandal could derail the women’s World Cup in China, where big crowds had organisers mulling a bid for the men’s edition in 2018.

The month-long tournament closed on Sunday with a jubilant German side on the winner’s podium after their 2-0 triumph over Brazil at Shanghai’s newly-renovated Hongkou stadium.

With a sell-out crowd, a pulsating contest and a deserving winner, the final was a fitting end to a largely incident-free tournament.

“On the level of technique and tactics, the quality of play, it is really, really a big success,” FIFA president Sepp Blatter said before the final.

“The level of fair play — no direct red cards in 30 matches — and practically 40,000 people on average at the matches. Tremendous success.”

While the players could not be faulted for their conduct, incidents off the pitch threatened to tarnish the tournament.

Local organisers were embarrassed in the Yangtze river city of Wuhan when Denmark team officials discovered Chinese men with video cameras filming a closed team meeting at their hotel. The cloak-and-dagger incident occurred days before Denmark were due to play China in their first group match.

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While Chinese fans showed impressive enthusiasm for the tournament, with crowds of over 30,000 people attending non-China group matches in the five host cities, an ugly streak of nationalism emerged at a match between Germany and Japan.

The game in Hangzhou saw large sections of the crowd booing the Japanese players.

But despite the frustrations and disappointment of China being knocked out in the quarter finals by Norway, the organisers are considering mounting a bid for the 2018 men’s World Cup finals. “We are in talks with FIFA regarding technical issues in hosting a men’s world cup,” said Xie Yalong, a director of the Chinese FA.