The tree of soccer, youth training is the root. In a recent in-depth interview with a reporter from the Xinhua Time
Chen Xuyuan, President of our soccer association, emphasized
Youth training is not only the key to current development, but also the cornerstone for the future. Youth training is regarded as the core pillar of China's soccer, and is also one of Chen Xuyuan's key concerns.
"The key to whether our soccer can be revitalized in the next 5 or 10 years and attract the attention of the public is how the youth training is now. We want the public to see the progress and hope of our country's soccer, and more importantly, show the results of youth training." Chen Xuyuan revealed that the Football Association will strengthen youth training from five dimensions.
First, the FA plans to launch a national youth soccer league within the year to create a unified national youth league system.
"In the past, there was a lack of such a system and it was done separately, but now we want to create a uniform standard. We also welcome school soccer teams to join the league and make it a regular event, to be held every year." Chen Xuyuan added.
Secondly, the HKFA will organize elite youth training camps on a regular basis.
Several elite training camps for different age groups are set up across the country to better develop youth soccer talent.
"We're going to keep a good coaching staff and team on a regular basis. Regularized maintenance is not like in the past when training ended after a week or two weeks and the whole camp disappeared." Chen Xuyuan introduced.
Third, the FA will increase the training of youth coaches.
Chen Xuyuan pointed out that the lack of youth coaches is a major shortcoming in youth training. "Where do the talents come from? How to improve the level? This includes allowing youth coaches to apply advanced international youth training methods to youth talent development. We must solve these problems."
Fourth, the FA will promote international exchanges for young people, insisting on 'bringing in' and 'going out'.
"We have to send players out, that's what the FA has to do. And of course some of the adult players. My goal is that within this year and next year, there should be youth teams going out in their entirety, hopefully dozens of them will go out." Chen Xuyuan said.
"I am shocked that there are tens of thousands of youngsters playing soccer abroad in Japan. Japan is tens of thousands, our country has almost none at the moment. This means that in the next 10 years, the gap between our soccer and Japan's will become bigger and bigger. We must have a deep understanding of this problem and a strong sense of urgency." Chen Xuyuan said that the Football Association should do a good job of educating and protecting young players and parents, while seeking cooperation with developed soccer countries to ensure that young players who stay in the world have a ball to play.
"It must start this year, and I hope it will increase every year. I also hope that the community will work together to support this work. The FA also hopes to get more support from the community to do this work well." Chen Xuyuan said.
Fifthly, the HKFA will work with the relevant departments to promote the integration of sports and education in the field of soccer.
In 2020, the opinion on deepening the integration of sports and education to promote the healthy development of young people was released, which pointed out the direction for the integration of sports and education. Chen Xuyuan said that the work of body-education integration in soccer has made progress every year, but there are still problems. "The key to the integration of body and education is to open up. The soccer system should be better opened to support the development of campus soccer. Campus soccer is also an important part of the development of soccer in our country when it is well developed. Campus soccer should also support the professional development of our soccer. The goal is all the same, it should be further done well."
Chen Xuyuan expects that through the integration of sports and education, the channels for players to register between the campus system and working soccer can be opened up, so that players can freely choose to register in the campus or the club, and realize the mutual conversion, so that the players and parents can have more choices.
"We must work extremely hard and improve every year. Without good youth training, there must be no future for soccer in our country." Chen Xuyuan said.
