A sustainable energy plan for the next 30 years

This year’s World Cup is the biggest in history. Forty-eight teams qualified from FIFA’s 211 member associations.

Yet the second-most populous country, which has over 1.4 billion people and a booming economy, isn’t among them. It didn’t even come close.

China made it to the third of five qualifying rounds among the Asian Football Confederation before losing out to Saudi Arabia and Indonesia – neither of which is a footballing giant. Instead, Chinese fans have resorted to supporting a Chinese referee this year. The country has only made the World Cup once before, in 2002, when it played three matches, lost three matches, scored zero goals and conceded nine.