On April 12, it is a rarity for Chinese football to hail any good news to inspire local fans. According to Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Chinese Super League (CSL) has been named the top professional football league in Asia in the latest Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ranking.

The secret to the CSL's sudden glory?  Well, the AFC has changed the method of ranking calculation. Before, the ranking of a national league is based on 90 percent club plus 10 percent national competition results. The new ranking, in contrast, is based 100 percent on club competition. Therefore, China has moved from the second to the first position in the ranking, followed by Qatar, Republic of Korea (ROK), Iran and Japan.

In fact, CSL's top ranking tastes more like sarcasm than triumph. It reminds bitterly how big Chinese clubs backed by thick cheque books are competing strongly with high-profile signings of international talents, while the national team, mired in a talent drought, has continued to play dismally.

Over the years, Chinese clubs have been a formidable force in the AFC Champions League, Asia's answer to UEFA Champions League. Guangzhou Evergrande won two AFC Champions League titles in 2013 and 2015. Shanghai SIPG reached the semi-finals stage in 2017. 

Since 2015, an increasing number of prominent football players has been drawn to China, and amongst them, the most glistening stars are Brazilian box to box midfielder Paulinho, 2016 Olympic Gold Medal holder Renato Augusto, accomplished Belgian winger Yannick Carrasco, former Manchester United all-around player Marouane Fellaini and Slovakian legend Marek Hamšík.

The boosted competitiveness at the club level is mainly a result of the big-money purchase of top international talents. Chinese fans indeed deserve to enjoy some fun at club level, given long-running frustration at the national level.

However, even at club level, it'd be dangerous to be blinded by the quick boost of competition results in the AFC Champions League and to ignore deep-rooted problems related to footballing infrastructure.

For one, even clubs at CSL, China's top professional league, struggle to maintain professional fields in an adequate condition for league matches. Earlier this month, a CSL clash between Wuhan and Henan was canceled at the last minute, simply because the home team's field, located in Wuhan, one of the most affluent cities in Central China, was not ready.

Ironically, Chinese clubs are spending big money on signing big names and shouldering hefty payrolls, but they fail to even maintain proper fields for playing football in the first place. Even worse, the Wuhan debacle reveals problems much more sinister than inadequate infrastructure, but those related to poor footballing governance.

The latest revision of the league regulation clearly states that, if a CSL match cannot take place because the field is not ready, the home side shall be handed down a 3:0 defeat. However, Wuhan has not been punished despite protest by the away side, and the CSL match in question will be postponed to take place sometime later, in stark contradiction to the applicable regulation.

Chinese fans do cherish the good matches being played in the star-lit CSL now. It'd be a nightmare if rules were bent and CSL degenerated back into the dark days of rigged league matches, rampant bribes and wronged clubs threatening to quit or actually quit the league in the middle of the season.

While topping AFC's league table, how can CSL change the taste of sarcasm into real triumphalism? First and foremost, the footballing authorities must maintain a fair playing ground - learn from past disasters and failures and prevent them from happening again.

What's more, the footballing authorities must be serious about cultivating China's talent pool. The lack of talents, resulting in over-reliance on the big-money purchase, represents not only the very root of sarcasm but also the reason for the persistent poor performance of the national team.

When it comes to talent cultivation, China's footballing authorities have launched highly controversial measures. A CSL team must include at least one U23 player in the line-up. The number of U23 players playing in a given match must be no less than the number of foreign players. To borrow ancient Chinese wisdom, such measures can be described as the silly behavior of trying to help the shoots grow by pulling them upward.

Why can't the footballing authorities impose more robust reserve team rules on CSL clubs? Why do authorities have to risk ruining the quality of China's top professional league games?

Another key measure to enlarge the talent pool is to recruit naturalized players from overseas leagues. China's footballing authorities are doing it but in a very awkward way. The authorities opened the door of naturalized talents after the end of the 2018 CSL season but suddenly refused to allow naturalized players to play before the first round of the 2019 season. It was only in the third round that naturalized players got to play for their respective clubs, who had been anxious and confused by this frivolity.    

Chinese fans deserve to enjoy top-quality league games. Backed by big-money investments, CSL does have the potential to be Asia's best. If it is now on the surface, let's hope it will be in essence. 

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