INTERVIEW-Soccer-China game hampered by lack of base - author

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING, June 23 (Reuters) - Soccer in China is dead and the lack of a grassroots base is hampering the chances of a quick revival, according to the author of a new book about the world's favourite sport in its most populous country.

China first victory in their Asian qualifying group for the 2010 World Cup against Australia on Sunday was too little, too late and they now have no chance of appearing at international soccer's top table until 2014.

Rowan Simons, whose book "Bamboo Goalposts" was published last month, believes that only widespread reform of the whole footballing structure in China can save it.

"It's dead, in my view, it's never had a life," the 41-year-old Briton said in an interview.

"It's always been about the elite, you can do that with minor sports but not football... unless something is done soon, it'll be the end of football in China altogether."

Simons arrived in China in 1987 and has remained for much of the last 21 years, enjoying fame as a football commentator for Beijing TV and running a couple of media companies as well as China Club Football.

At the end of the 1990, he witnessed China's football boom and was also around when it petered out after China's sole appearance to date at the World Cup finals in 2002.

"For a couple years it looked like China might become a footballing power but, with hindsight, it's easy to say why that wasn't real, because there's no grassroots, there's no pyramid," he said.