‍‍Today, Chinese government officially published a reform document for football, which is the result of the meeting headed by President Xi on Feb 27 where a proposal for football reform was discussed. 

The document, consisting of 50 descriptions, was titled Overall Reform Plan for Chinese Football (literary translation) and described detailed requirements for many areas of the sport’s development. 

It points out three stages for football development. The first stage aims to regulate the internal football management system. During the second stage, the professional leagues should be among the top Asian teams and women’s national teams should return to the world’s best. The final goal for the third stage is to host a FIFA World Cup successfully and for men’s team to qualify for the World Cup and Olympics. 

One of the most politically significant plan is to separate Chinese Football Association and General Administration of Sports of China. These two institutions are made up of the same group of people now. In the future, the Chinese Football Association will not be a governmental department, and will be run as a separate institute and will publish its finance and accepts audits.

There will be two new training grounds for men’s national team. Local governments are encouraged to invest in football, especially for education and sports department. There will be studies into the possibility of releasing a football lottery which is largely based on Chinese professional leagues. 

There should be efforts to help clubs avoid changing names and locations frequently, to build historical football clubs. Prices for football players should avoid being unrealistically high. 

In regard of football in schools, there should be 20,000 special football schools by 2020, and 50,000 schools by 2025. Governments will provide services in terms of insurance of school football, to protect students’ safety.