Attempts to make American football more popular in China are taking far longer to bring to fruition than proponents of the game had hoped.

Although it is the most-watched sport in the United States, and generates millions of dollars, it receives scant attention in the world's most populous country.

Delegations from the US National Football League have been visiting China since 2004 in order to promote the excitement of watching or taking part in a game that features strength, speed and skillful ball play, but so far their entreaties have for the most part fallen on deaf ears.

Part of the problem is the prohibitive cost of the kit - shoulder pads, helmets and boots - but it's also because most NFL games are played at a time when Chinese people are sleeping. Its complexity has also been cited as a problem.

American football remains an elusive but potentially massive money-spinner so promoters have been introducing a non-contact version of the game called flag football at selected schools. The basic rules are similar to those of the mainstream game but, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier to end a down.

"To continue to grow, you have to have an international business presence," Pete Abitante, senior director of international public affairs for the NFL, told the Boston Globe two years ago. "China is such an untapped market for us. That's why flag football is important to us. When you think about how you learned to play football, it was, 'Go down to the fire hydrant and I'll throw you a pass'.

"Flag football is a good place to start because it's the simplest form of the game for kids aged 11 to 14. Bringing flag football to their schools is a way to show we're not just there to bring in NFL games."

The league has sent representatives to China several times to discuss possible ventures, including a trip in 2005 when they took not only commissioner Paul Tagliabue to Beijing and Shanghai but potentially the league's greatest ambassador: former Philadelphia Eagles tight end Chad Lewis. Lewis was a hit not because of his football prowess but because he speaks fluent Mandarin, which he learned during a two-year mission in Taichung, Taiwan, before attending university.

Nonetheless, basketball, soccer and table tennis remain the sports of choice for most youngsters.

American football's seasonal finale, the Super Bowl, in February, was broadcast live at the Goose 'n' Duck, a British-style sports pub near Chaoyang Park in east Beijing, courtesy of the NFL.

However, the vast majority of the nearly 350 football fans who went along were expatriate Americans and the event was considered by many as yet another failure in a growing list of missed opportunities.

Another initiative two years ago, also sponsored by the NFL, was dubbed "the Yao Ming effect", named after the 7ft 6ins Shanghai-born basketball player who came to prominence in the US playing for the Houston Rockets and whose presence in China's 2008 Olympic basketball team boosted TV ratings.

Four Chinese sportsmen were handpicked to train as NFL place-kickers but none of them reached the required standard and the promotion was quietly shelved.

Two years ago, the NFL conceived the China Bowl, a proposed pre-season exhibition game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at the National Stadium in Beijing as part of the countdown to the Olympics. It was postponed until 2009 because of pressures from other matches and then canceled because of the economic downturn.

Despite the setbacks, the NFL remains undaunted.

"You've got a nation that's obviously enthralled by Olympic competition," said Chris Parsons, the NFL's new vice-president in charge of its international business, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "We've looked at it and said: 'We have to be able to compete in this marketplace'."

Parsons believes the gladiator style of the game will bring in new fans.

In recent months, the NFL has renewed efforts to hold an exhibition game, aiming for August 2010, and has been in talks with the National Stadium Co, the operator of Beijing's main Olympic venue, and also stadium groups in Shanghai, about hosting the event.

The NFL, which maintains an office in China and which has sponsored professional coaches to tour schools in the country, said it was encouraged by Chinese television's coverage of February's Super Bowl.

A total of 2.2 million people watched live in China, and an additional 110,364 people watched the delayed broadcast online, which led to a deal with the NFL to show more games on sina.com, one of China's most popular internet portals.

So far this year more than 11,000 people have registered with and participated in American football events at Chinese universities and 264 students from 24 schools play flag football.

But for a nation with a population in excess of 1.3 billion, there's still a long way to go before the NFL can say it has established a proper foothold on the Chinese market.

(China Daily 05/18/2009 page7)