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Tears as stadium is destroyed
15/02/2007 13:18 - (SA)
Beijing - China's national players are leading a chorus of condemnation about the destruction of a stadium where the team qualified for the 2002 World Cup, after it was flattened to make way for a shopping mall.
"I am very, very depressed," the China Daily on Thursday quoted midfielder Zhao Junzhe as saying after Monday's dynamite-blasting of the 60 000-capacity Wulihe Stadium in the northeastern city of Shenyang.
"I don't understand why they had to destroy it. We should not demolish everything that's good. I think we need to keep some reminders of China's soccer glory."
The stadium, built in 1989, is a favourite for players and fans because it is where China beat Oman 1-0 in October 2001, a win that took the nation into the World Cup finals for the first and still only time.
The leading Titan Sports newspaper said: "Dream demolished.
"It took just seven seconds to destroy China's only dream place at the World Cup."
'Swept up in the nostalgia'
As wreaths were strewn around the former stadium this week, a former teammate of Zhao's who played in the historic match was swept up in the nostalgia.
"There was a lot of emotion. I will never forget it," the China Daily quoted him as saying.
Aware of the sensitivities, the government in the Liaoning province, of which Shenyang is the capital, imposed a blanket media ban on the destruction of the stadium, but local emotions still ran high.
Zhou Zhe, a 24-year-old local, said: "I cried the whole night, the stadium is a symbol for the city."
Across China, buildings of historical and architectural significance are being destroyed to make way for gleaming new skyscrapers and shopping malls as the nation undergoes its remarkable economic transformation.
However controversies such as the one in Shenyang rarely make national headlines in the government-controlled press.
- AFP
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