China recently established a national working committee for school football, led by the Ministry of Education. Education Minister Yuan Guiren was appointed as the chairman of the committee, with Vice Education Minister Hao Ping and Deputy Director of the General Administration of Sports of China Cai Zhenhua as vice chairmen. Other committee members are all senior officials from the Ministry of Finance, National Development and Reform Commission, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of China, and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League.

This development follows the transfer of responsibility for school football from the sports authorities to education authorities in November 2014. The committee will lead the implementation of laws and regulations related to campus sports and football, manage and evaluate school football development, and manage funding for school football. 20,000 schools will be selected and developed as football specialty schools, and about 30 districts and counties will also be chosen as pilot regions. The MoE has also called for the establishment of inter-school leagues in primary schools, junior secondary schools, senior secondary schools and universities respectively, to cultivate China’s top football talent.

Analysis by Liu Jing, Assistant Director Education Marketing

The change of leading role and the establishment of the working committee led by top officials from all relevant ministries indicates that school football development is seen as a priority in China. President Xi Jinping is a football fan and has expressed his dissatisfaction with the current state of Chinese football on several occasions.

With the Ministry of Education leading the development of grass-roots football, the government is keen to introduce high quality overseas football related curriculums and programmes to support this task. Partnership programmes and courses successfully linked to this agenda will likely gain strong policy as well as funding support from Chinese authorities and institutions, as well as attracting media attention and coverage. UK institutions with relevant programs and courses could leverage this opportunity to raise their profile and awareness in China and also boost recruitment to various learning programs.

Source: http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s5147/201501/1…

Please direct any queries about the China market to liu.jing@britishcouncil.org.cn