Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 29th. Question: Let children have a ball to play on weekends
Xinhua News Agency reporters Ji Jiadong, Wang Jingyu and Wang Hengzhi
Sun Xun's children go to Wuyi Primary School in Haidian District, Beijing. This is a traditional football school. Their school team is among the best in Beijing's school league.
"Xiao Sun" is a member of this team. He won the championship of Beijing Group B and B in the third and fourth grade competition.
"Xiao Sun" practiced taekwondo at the age of 3 and rose all the way to the red and black belt. When he was in the first grade, he took the initiative to join the football team and became a "football kid".
As a father, Sun Xun encourages his son to choose football he loves; as the operator of a social football training institution, he feels that the soil under the children's feet lacks enough nutrients.
"Many games in the campus league are scheduled for mid-week afternoons." Sun Xun said, "The two classes in the afternoon are not available. The children are very happy, but the parents have opinions. So after the fourth and fifth grades, a team of about 30 people will There are about 15 left."
It turns out that there are also some small-scale invitational tournaments on Saturdays and Sundays, but some of them have an unfixed format and some have a relatively high density.
In Sun Xun's view, it is difficult for such a competition to achieve the purpose of training children and teams, so he came up with the idea of organizing a weekend league by himself.
Li Yan is the coach of "Xiao Sun" and is hired by Wuyi Primary School to lead the team.
Li Yan intuitively felt that the lack of systematic regular events is not conducive to coaches arranging targeted training.
They can only spontaneously schedule balls with other teams on weekends, the quality of the games is not guaranteed, and it is impossible to form a virtuous circle of using games to test the effect of training and promoting training with games.
"For coaches who want to engage in youth training, there is no system of competition." Li Yan said, "As long as those who do youth training must have some ideals, but if they can't produce any results in three or five years, they will not be able to. Motivated to do it. Without the support of the game, the players can't come out."
Sun Xun and Li Yan are like-minded, and the idea of hosting the competition is set.
In 2019, the two registered "Wind Wings Sports Development Co., Ltd.", initially limited by venues and funds, only a few teams could be invited to try.
A year later, despite having two 11-a-side and four five-a-side football pitches, due to the epidemic, only eight teams from Beijing in the "Northern Star" football league launched a single round-robin match.
On the Qingming Festival in 2021, as one of the "Northern Star" series, the "Spring Bud Cup" eight-a-side football tournament invited 32 teams from Beijing and surrounding areas. The children were divided into 08- Groups 09, 09-10, 10-11 and 11-12 enjoyed three days of football fun in the spring buds season.
But the event at this time has not yet reached the ideal design of the weekly game.
With the experience of the first two competitions, "Wind Wings" established the "Youth High-level Weekend League" in October 2021, referred to as "Qinggao League".
The competition is held every weekend and follows the age classification method of the "Spring Bud Cup".
Due to the sufficient time for a single game, high level of participating teams, reasonable competition system settings, and preferential entry fees, the competition attracted 72 teams to join, of which campus teams accounted for nearly half, and teams from Fangshan and Shunyi came here.
It was not until April 23 this year that the competition was suspended due to the epidemic.
Sun Xun positioned the Youth League as a "supplement to other competitions", providing regular weekend competitions for teenagers while "integrating" campus teams with social club teams.
The entry fee of the Youth League is lower than the market average price. Each team only needs to pay 200 yuan for one game, so if a venue plays four games at the same time, only 1,600 yuan will be charged, and these funds will be used to pay referees and security. There is not much that can be gained.
On the one hand, such a low threshold takes into account the expansion of the league's influence, and more importantly, it is to ensure that the campus team can participate.
"Social clubs can make profits and charge tuition fees, but campus teams can't. If the fees are too high, they won't be able to come. We hope to compress our profit margins to allow more children to play football." Sun Xun said, "Let more people play football. Knowing our Youth League and getting more teams to participate is an intangible asset."
The Youth League divides teams that practice once a week into the supergroup and other teams into the first group, and groups players by school age, rather than the usual way of grouping by age.
For example, in the 11-12 category, players born after August 31, 2011 are encouraged to participate, while elite team children born in 2012 are recommended to participate.
This grouping system has narrowed the strength gap between the teams in each group to a certain extent.
The first- and second-year groups use five-a-side competitions, and the other grade groups are eight-a-side.
Each game is divided into three quarters of 20 minutes each, and each player is encouraged to play. Clubs with a large number of players will register 2-3 teams at the same time to join different groups.
Sun Xun said that due to the impact of the epidemic and the fact that it has just started, the current grouping still needs to be determined through communication with the coaches.
In the future plan, all teams will have to play the placement round to determine the participating groups, and they will be promoted and promoted according to the results of the previous season.
Chai Wenchen, founder of Beijing Huixin Football Club, believes that the innovative practice of the "Qingao League" is very meaningful.
He said: "Our training level is actually good, but Chinese teenagers are too short of intense games. After football is popularized, players need to be grouped according to their ability. On Saturdays and Sundays, children of the same level and ability must be trained together. , competition, only players of the same level of ability can play together, and they can play better and better.”
Chai Wenchen, who has been in the football training industry for many years, also feels that the lack of regular elite competitions hinders the growth of young players, and the competition system must be constantly studied to dilute the results and allow more children to participate in the competition.
According to Sun Xun and Li Yan's original idea, it is hoped that such weekend events can be established in the east, south, west and north of Beijing, but it is not an easy task due to issues such as the epidemic and the conditions for hosting the competition.
"Excluding all the influences, we can accept up to 200 teams participating in the competition. If we have to play promotion and promotion, the existing venues are completely saturated, and we still need to have daily operations." Sun Xun said, "Now we are It is also under a lot of pressure. After all, we still have to survive and survive. If there is capital sponsorship in the future, we want to continue to expand the scale of this event.”
Li Yan knows that running the competition is not easy.
But when he sees the game day every weekend, parents and children picnic and camp in the park next to the court after the game, and he feels very relieved.
He said that in Spain, England and many other places, football is like this.
He hopes that one day children will be able to play every weekend.
"It was a football festival," Li Yan said.
How to let children have a ball to play on weekends is also a question that Lu Jian, executive director of the Nantong Campus Football Office in Jiangsu Province and head coach of the Nantong No. 2 Middle School football team, often thinks about.
Nantong No. 2 Middle School is a middle school with a long history, and it is also the key school of the Nantong Football Project "Municipal Team School".
Every year, the Nantong School Football Office will select a group of football seedlings in the middle and lower grades of primary schools in the city and train them intensively.
These children go to school and practice ball at the same time. They are trained in an integrated way. They all study in Nantong No. 2 Middle School in high school.
Lu Jian told reporters that the school attaches great importance to the training of the football school team and has a high willingness to participate. However, there were not many opportunities to participate in the past. The only provincial-level competition suitable for school teams is basically the "Provincial Governor's Cup" Youth Campus Football League.
In addition, the "Provincial Governor's Cup" adopts the competition system, and the regular competition organized by the official on weekends is blank. It is difficult to obtain timely inspection and feedback on the effect of the team's daily training.
In 2019, under the guidance of the Youth Division of the Provincial Sports Bureau, the Jiangsu Provincial Football Association carried out innovative reforms on the Jiangsu Provincial Youth Football Elite League. Breaking the boundaries between sports school teams, professional club teams, social youth training club teams and ordinary school teams, Lu Jian made the team's desire to play football on weekends come true.
"The biggest innovation of this competition is to hold weekend home and away games in the province, which does not take up children's study time. Moreover, professional club teams, sports school teams, social youth training clubs and campus teams can all participate, which was previously No." Lu Jian said, "In the past, there were only the 'Provincial Governor's Cup' and championships in provincial youth competitions. The championships were still within the sports system. The youth elite league was a good supplement and made up for the original shortcomings."
According to Liu Guoxiang, director of the Competition Department of the Jiangsu Football Association, the participation scale of the elite league has been expanded year by year, and the number of participating teams has increased from 30 in 2019 to more than 60 in 2021. On the basis of the original main competition, a preliminaries have been added. .
"The game was changed from the tournament system to the home and away league system. At first, many teams were not used to it, but later they became more and more recognized. The team can adjust the state and solve the team's problems during the interval between games, and the pertinence of training has also improved. already."
In Lu Jian's view, the competition system of the elite league is relatively advanced and the management is very standardized. The organizing committee of each game will send 5 officials including the game supervision and referee team to participate in the refereeing.
In addition, the athletes of the teams with outstanding performance in the competition have the opportunity to be approved for the title of first and second athlete grades, which also increases the attractiveness of the event.
Liu Guoxiang said that the Elite League is a representative sports-education integration event in Jiangsu Province.
In 2019, the game system was changed to the home and away system, which also echoed the Youth Super League launched by the Chinese Football Association.
In addition, the high-speed rail in Jiangsu Province at that time was already extending in all directions, and the transportation was relatively convenient, which also provided objective conditions for the realization of home and away games.
Thanks to the smooth communication and cooperation between the Jiangsu Provincial Sports Bureau and the Education Bureau, the Jiangsu Provincial Football Association now hosts the “Governor’s Cup” campus football event, the sports bureau system championships and the restructured elite league.
Therefore, the Provincial Football Association can coordinate the plans and schedules of these events, and conduct unified management of qualification examinations and referees.
According to Liu Guoxiang, Jiangsu Province has created better conditions for the integration of sports and education in football in recent years.
Whether they are professional clubs, or football players from provincial or municipal teams, most of them study in ordinary primary and secondary schools, and they can also participate in competitions in the provincial education system.
"According to the policy of the Provincial Department of Education, even professional club players, as long as they have school status, can still participate in the competition of the education system in the province. Because you are a student first, and a football professional training athlete second, you cannot deprive such children. the right to participate.”
Lu Jian also confirmed that among the 13 prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu, about 80% of the city teams adopted the "city team school-run" model like Nantong No. 2 Middle School, and the rest were jointly organized with social training institutions. .
According to Liu Guoxiang's statistics, of the 50 teams that will enter the Jiangsu Youth Football Elite League in 2021, 23 will set their home grounds in ordinary primary and secondary schools, which also plays a good role in creating a campus football cultural atmosphere.
When there was no new crown epidemic in 2019, the parents who came to watch the game were very enthusiastic and the atmosphere was better.
In the past two years, due to the prevention and control of the epidemic, there have been fewer on-site audiences.
Liu Guoxiang said: "Under the current conditions, in order to improve the level of campus football as soon as possible, it is necessary to gather elite players together for a long time. First of all, if it is scattered, there will not be many excellent coaches to lead the team, and the people who are usually scattered and temporarily concentrated The team is not too strong. Secondly, let the players go to local high-quality schools, and the parents of the athletes have no worries. Even if they fail to play in the professional team in the future, the students can pass the cultural test and go to a good university. Third, the school passes The excellent results achieved by these elite athletes can stimulate the enthusiasm of ordinary students to participate in football, and help to improve the school football atmosphere."
For the weekend home and away game format of the elite league, Lu Jian is very recognized, his only concern is the cost of participation.
Lu Jian calculated an account. Take the team of Nantong No. 2 Middle School as an example. If you want to go to a distant city such as Xuzhou and Lianyungang to participate in an away game, the transportation, accommodation and other expenses for a game will cost 10,000 or 20,000 yuan.
In order to encourage teams to participate in the competition, the Jiangsu Football Association gave some competition subsidies.
Still, some campus teams will have tight budgets.
Liu Guoxiang said that the funding for the elite league comes from the sports lottery public welfare fund, and the annual amount is fixed.
When the 2019 event was first launched, the organizer gave a certain amount of subsidies to the home and away teams, which basically covered the costs of participating and organizing the competition.
With the expansion of the scale of the event and the increase of the team, the subsidy standard has been reduced.
However, on the other hand, due to the increasing influence of the event, clothing suppliers have joined last year, and some more powerful sponsors are also interested in joining.
I believe that as the epidemic is better controlled, the elite league will develop better, and the weekend home and away game format should continue.