Beijing makes big play to realise Xi Jinping's dreams for soccer greatness
Capital aims to have thousands of youngsters take up the game to help realise the huge national hopes of the sport's fan-in-chief Xi Jinping
China’s capital has kicked off plans to raise standards in football – president Xi Jinping’s favourite sport – including having 100,000 youngsters studying the finer points of ‘the beautiful game’ within three years.
Three years ago Xi expressed three football wishes – for China to qualify for another World Cup, to host a World Cup and to win a World Cup.
[We must] start with children to improve the football standard in China
Wang Jun, head of sports, health and arts department at the Beijing Commission of Education, said on Sunday that the capital had drawn up 20 different measures to improve football education on Beijing campuses.
The plans include making football one of the options in the high-school entrance examination’s sports test in 2016, Xinhua reported.
Three campus school training centres and 200 schools, with an emphasis on football training, will be set up in Beijing within three years.
Domestic and foreign football experts, senior coaches and retired players will be hired to develop football education.