China's professional ping pong league suffers drought of support 中國職業乒乓聯盟支持度下降

China's table tennis super league, which started 10 years ago, is in trouble because of money problems and falling public support.

As the league prepares to launch a new season next June, the China Daily said fewer people went to league matches and sponsors were turning their back on the sport.

The article said that sponsors and the public were upset that big name players often could not play for the teams in the league because they were playing for China at the world level.

It said the problem was highlighted by the fact that Ma Lin, the men's world number one player bought a year ago for five million yuan (NT$21 million), was sold this year for just over 20 percent of that sum.

China has been the world's top table tennis nation for decades and hopes to win all the gold medals for ping pong at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.



(Jason Cox, staff writer with AFP)

十年前創立的中國乒乓球超級聯賽因為財務問題和民眾支持度下降而前景堪憂。

「中國日報」指出，乒乓球聯賽雖在為即將到來的六月球季預備，但觀看聯盟比賽的民眾卻愈來愈少，而贊助商也不願意為這項運動掏腰包。

文章中提到，贊助商和民眾對於明星選手通常因為代表中國參加世界級的賽事，而無法在聯盟中出賽感到憤怒。

世界排名第一的男子選手馬林身價滑落更突顯了這項問題，他一年前的身價為五百萬人民幣（新台幣兩千一百萬元），今年的身價只有去年的20%。

幾十年來中國一直是世界頂尖的乒乓球王國，期望在二○○八年北京奧運一舉奪下所有金牌。

（翻譯︰鄭湘儀）