On July 10th, China Football Association President Chen Xiaoyuan (first from left) announced the start of the first China Youth Football League. Xinhua News Agency reporter Jianghan photo
Xinhua News Agency, Hangzhou, July 10th Sports commentary: deepening the integration of sports and education to help the sustainable development of football in China
Xinhua News Agency reporters Gong Bing, Xia Liang and Xiao Shiyao
Guided by the Ministry of Education and the State Sports General Administration, the first China Youth Football League sponsored by China Football Association was launched in Hangzhou on the 10th. Up to now, 2329 teams have signed up for the competition. As the competition time of different groups is different, more teenagers will participate as more groups start to register. This is a national single sports event with a distinctive imprint of the integration of sports and education, and it is a practical implementation of the "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Football in China", or it will effectively promote the reform of school sports, bring a demonstration and leading role to the integration and development of sports and education in other sports, and lay a solid foundation for the reform and development of football in China.
The launch of China Youth Football League means that the integration of sports and education in youth football has ushered in a substantial breakthrough in competition design and execution. The league will break the identity and qualification restrictions of contestants, and teams from schools, sports schools, club youth training echelons and social youth training institutions can participate. From the system design, the league will be built into a platform for cultivating and discovering young football talents, and the channel for professional football talents to enter the campus will be more smooth. Football seedlings in school also have more room for expansion in professional training and development.
The launch of China Youth Football League is a powerful measure to promote the reform of school physical education. At the end of 2014, the Ministry of Education took campus football as the breakthrough and experimental field of school sports reform. So far, 32,780 characteristic schools of campus football have been set up in China, with more than 55 million young students participating in campus football activities, which laid a good foundation for popularizing football and expanding the football population.
School physical education follows the educational concept of health first, helping students enjoy fun, strengthen their physique, improve their personality and temper their will in physical exercise. China Youth Football League aims at the healthy development of young players, insists on paying equal attention to cultural education and professional training, and trains socialist builders and successors with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor, which is a practical follow-up to the concept of school physical education. In recent years, school physical education advocates students to master a sports skill and cultivate lifelong sports habits. Under the framework of the system design of the integration of sports and education at the national level, the China Youth Football League with the characteristics of the integration of sports and education will be launched, which will promote the development of school sports reform in depth.
The launch of China Youth Football League is an in-depth implementation of the "Overall Plan for Football Reform and Development in China". The plan of foot reform has been issued for more than seven years, which has pointed out the correct direction for the reform and development of football in China, and achieved some positive results. However, due to the weak overall foundation of football in China and the time needed for system construction, the results of the men’s football national team competition were poor or even missed, and professional leagues suffered multiple crises such as unpaid wages, withdrawal and dissolution of clubs. At present, the football situation in China is grim.
Because of this, it is more necessary to lay a solid foundation, and the sustainable development of youth football has become the key to solving the problem. The "Overall Plan for Football Reform and Development in China" puts forward: "Promote the large-scale growth of young football talents." China Youth Football League will be a powerful driving force to achieve this goal. As a unified competition platform, China Youth Football League can not only examine the potential of national football teenagers, but also further help to build a scientific, efficient and complete youth training system. Only with a solid foundation and long-term achievements can China football usher in a bright future.
