Xi Jinping captains top officials in planning how to give Chinese soccer a boost

China's top leaders met on Friday to discuss and approve a plan to revive the country's ailing soccer fortunes.

In a meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping and attended by Premier Li Keqiang and two other Politburo Standing Committee members, the leaders linked a turnaround in the game to the realisation of the "China dream", or the rejuvenation of Chinese civilisation.

No other major countries so far have elevated the beautiful game to such a national level.

A document released by Xinhua after the meeting said "developing and reviving soccer is the desire of the people of the whole country".

Major changes would be introduced to the game in China and any obstructions would be "swept away", it said.

The document said China must build a strong "mass foundation" to develop soccer, meaning that more children would be encouraged to learn the game. By 2017, more than 20,000 schools across the country would have soccer training in their curriculum, Xinhua reported.

Xi, just like former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping , is known as a keen fan of the sport.