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China is to build 20,000 soccer-themed schools across the country in a bid to tackle obesity and raise the standard of its long underperforming national team, an Education Ministry official said this week.
Wang Dengfeng, director of the Physical Education, Health and Art Department at the Ministry of Education, said that national student health tests showed that not enough was being done to battle obesity and poor fitness.
China has the second-largest number of obese people in the world behind only the United States, according to The Lancet medical journal. There are more than 62 million obese people living in China, or 9 per cent of the world’s total.
According to the Zhengzhou Evening News, Wang said that lack of exercise had become a problem of globalisation.
“To further improve the quality of national sports requires a national strategy,” he said.

As part of plans to improve fitness and sporting quality nationwide, Wang said 20,000 “soccer-focused” schools would be built.
All students attending these soccer schools will learn to play the game to a high standard, and actively take part in competitions at a local and national level.
“In the future, these children will be members of the national team, and other professional teams,” Wang said.
The Chinese men’s national team has failed to impress in recent years, despite improvements at club level, with Guangzhou Evergrande winning last year’s AFC Champions League.

The national team has only reached the World Cup once, in 2002, when they were eliminated at the group stage without scoring a goal.
Frenchman Alain Perrin was named national team coach in February, after his predecessor, Spaniard Jose Antonio Camacho, was sacked in the wake of a shocking 5-1 defeat to Thailand in June last year.
Wang said that if there were 1,000 students for every soccer school, and 10 of those take up the sport full-time, then that would leave China with 200,000 potential players.
“As long as we cultivate 100,000 outstanding soccer players, how can our soccer not progress?” he asked.


China to build 20,000 soccer academies in bid to raise standards and tackle obesity

Supporter of Guangzhou Evergrande holds up a paper cut-out of trophy at Tianhe stadium in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Photo: Reuters

Chinese President Xi Jinping kicks a football during a visit to Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. Photo: Reuters

David Beckham in action as China's first global soccer ambassador during a game with Chinese students of a middle school in Beijing, China. Photo: EPA

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.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}New | China to build 20,000 soccer academies in bid to raise standards and tackle obesity

New | China to build 20,000 soccer academies in bid to raise standards and tackle obesity