The Second Session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held in Beijing on March 3, 2014. HuiKa Yan, CPPCC Standing Committee Member and Chairman of the Board of Evergrande Group, attended the opening ceremony, and formally submitted to CPPCC the proposal themed Rationalizing the Youth Football Management System and Accelerating the Football Talent cultivation. The full text is as follows:

In 2013, Chinese professional football made a historical breakthrough, but still lagged behind as a whole. In particular, multiple management of youth football, chaos in youth football league system and poor traditional football school mechanism have greatly hindered the development of youth football, resulting in serious lack of football population and lack of worthy Chinese football successors.

It is suggested to proceed with rationalizing the youth football management system, establishing the sound youth football league system and vigorously establishing "new-type football schools", so as to accelerate the youth football talent cultivation and to increase the overall level of Chinese football as soon as possible.

I.    Existing problems

1.  Serious multiple management

At present, there are three systems, i.e. education, sports and social organization to manage the youth football in China: Youth Ministry of Chinese Football Association is mainly responsible for the training and competition of national-level youth football team and the organization of national youth football U-series leagues; the "Campus Football Office" jointly founded by the State General Administration of Sports and the Ministry of Education is responsible for developing the campus football; the "Federation of University Students Sports of China" and the "Federation of Middle School Students Sports of China" guided by the Ministry of Education have a second-level institution responsible for the football affairs, which also manages the football task of university students and middle school students throughout the country as a social organization.

Due to multiple management and lack of an in-system powerful full-time institution independently and fully responsible for the youth football task, each of the existing three systems goes his own way, lacks sufficient coordination, or even passes the buck to each other, seriously hindering the deployment of the significant task. In 2013, the Opinion on Strengthening the National Youth Campus Football Task jointly released by the State General Administration of Sports and the Ministry of Education clearly pointed out that "the sports, education and administration departments at all levels shall cooperate with the related institutions", but the departments within these systems failed to do so, resulting in no concerted effort and poor implementation effect.

2.  Extremely unsound league system

The drawback of multiple management is reflected in the extremely closure, deformity and chaos of the youth football leagues. Chinese Football Association organizes the national youth football U-series leagues and the professional club reserve leagues, but does not carry out the professional club echelon leagues; "Campus Football Office" holds the campus football leagues at all levels; the community organizations subordinated to the "Federation of University Students Sports of China" and the "Federation of Middle School Students Sports of China" also hold the national university students and middle school students football leagues. On the surface, there are numerous youth football leagues, but due to lack of coordination, system insufficiency and management chaos, these leagues, although held for many years, have received extremely low social participation and attention, failing to become a competitive platform for the youth football talents to thrive.

3.  Serious reduction in the number of traditional football schools

Football school is an important channel of youth football talent cultivation; however, in recent years, the development of traditional football schools is in a dilemma, the number of which has been reduced from more than 4,000 in the period of great prosperity to about 20 at present, with sharp decrease in the number of students at school. Traditional football schools passed their zenith and are on the wane due to, on one hand, the poor political and economic environment of Chinese football several years ago, where the youth were not highly willing to engage in the football career, and on the other hand, being subject to the drawback of multiple management. Traditional football schools cannot obtain sufficient support from the educations system, and have no choice but to depend on the sports system excessively, completely placing the football training above the cultural learning, or even cancelling the cultural course, so that the students will lose competitiveness when stepping in society if they cannot become professional players.

II.  Suggestions

1.  To identify that the Ministry of Education is the responsible department of youth football management

Youth football management and talent cultivation are within the scope of youth education, a constituent part of educational function, so it is suggested to completely incorporate them into the education system, and to identify that the Ministry of Education is the responsible department of youth football management. From the Ministry of Education to the education departments at all levels in the provinces and cities, a specialized youth football management institution shall be established to implement the vertical management mode, fully and directly responsible for the youth football talent cultivation, thoroughly solving the multiple management problem.

2.  To establish a sound youth football league system

The Ministry of Education shall establish a national unified, complete and normative youth football league system: school-oriented at prefectural, municipal and provincial levels; dividing based on age group to children group, primary school students group, middle school students group, high school students group and university students group; unified competition system, where local leagues are carried out first and then national finals are carried out every year; strengthening the news propaganda promotion; sound talent transporting system, where the excellent football talents over 18 years old can be directly transferred to professional leagues.

3.  To vigorously establish "new-type football schools", and to cultivate excellent football talents at the maximum speed in the minimum duration with the minimum investment

"New-type football schools" are those where the professional football training is strengthened on the basis of complete primary and secondary school cultural education, i.e. the schools where the cultural education and the professional football training are developed simultaneously. In order to cultivate excellent football talents at the maximum speed in the minimum duration with the minimum investment, it is suggested to establish 1~2 "new-type football schools" in each prefecture-level city and 3~5 "new-type football schools" in each provincial capital city and direct-controlled municipality. The simplest method is to add the corresponding professional football fields on the basis of the original traditional schools to turn them into "new-type football schools", so that the youth or children who like football in the whole city can be centralized and cultivated there.