ANALYSIS-Soccer-China gets serious about sorting out soccer

* Chinese soccer dogged by corruption, flagging interest

* National team ranked 102 in world

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Galvanised by word from the very top, China is finally getting serious about sorting out the shambolic state of its domestic soccer scene.

Chinese soccer has long been regarded a national disgrace, a mire of match-fixing, corruption, violence, poor play and dwindling crowds. One joke currently doing the rounds has Premier Wen Jiabao going to North Korea and encouraging his fellow Communist leader Kim Jong-il to follow China's example in reforming its economy.

"We are now rich and strong," says Wen, to which Kim replies: "But we have qualified for the World Cup."

There is certainly embarrassment that China will be absent from next year's World Cup finals, while North and South Korea and Japan have already booked their tickets to South Africa.

The national team, which has qualified for the finals just once (2002), languish at 102 in the FIFA rankings, just below the Cape Verde Islands.

The huge success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics also reinforced awareness in the Chinese government of how effective sport can be in displaying a country's soft power.