The third report in the "Focus on Chinese Football" series
"Football enters campus", why is there so much thunder and so little rain?
Tianyi, a 9-year-old boy, plays football well.
But his mother Liu Yan told reporters that she could only let him play until he was 12 years old.
The age of 12 is also the time when Liu Yan’s eldest son Tianqi “hangs up his boots”. The mother's explanation was: "Football is fine for children to play when they are young. In the current football environment, how promising can football be?"
At the age of 12, he "retired" immediately after graduating from primary school. This is not an isolated case.
Chen Cheng, coach of a football club in Beijing, told the research team that the first grade of primary school is the age group with the highest proportion of students, and has been declining year after year. In fact, you can only tell whether a child is a "good prospect" for playing football at the age of thirteen or fourteen. "Before the age of 12, children are not fully developed physically and mentally, and cannot fully master many technical movements. They can only be selected based on simple criteria such as running fast and being strong. This is also one of the reasons for the lack of technically aware players in China. ." Chen Cheng said.
"Now, there is no shortage of children with football talent, but there is a shortage of parents who have confidence in football." Many people in the industry think so.
In March 2015, the "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football" was released to encourage football to enter campuses. But nearly nine years have passed, and the reality of campus football is still the same - primary schools are bustling, junior high schools are becoming sparse, and high schools are deserted.
Not only is the lack of football reserve talents, but also the lack of coaches and venue facilities, which also affects the rapid progress of football.
Zeng Zhihua is the football coach of a private club. When campus football was on the rise, a primary school signed a three-year contract with his club using the government's method of purchasing services. However, not long after, the school fired him on the grounds of cost control. And he knew in his heart that there was no emphasis on football entering campus.
Even in Rongjiang County, the birthplace of Guizhou’s “Village Super League” that is popular across the country, there are only a handful of certified football coaches in the county.
Lai Hongjing is the coach of the football team of Rongjiang No. 1 Middle School. He has always been called "the only professional football teacher in the county." The shortage of teachers is evident from this.
The 2022 National Sports Venue Statistical Survey shows that there are 135,900 football venues across the country. But we have a population of more than 1.4 billion! The number of schools alone reaches 518,500, with 293 million students enrolled. On average, how many students have one piece of space? !
There are even fewer standard football fields on campus. Going to a professional venue to rent a venue to play football can cost as little as a few hundred yuan or as much as a thousand yuan per game. This is by no means a small amount for the average family.
An expert who has been engaged in campus football research for a long time believes: "Some grassroots schools have not realized the true meaning of developing campus football and have not focused on popularizing campus football. Without a broad and solid foundation, how can we cultivate outstanding students?" Player?"
"A considerable number of schools regard 'football on campus' as a 'sport' and a form of meeting standards. For example, in order to complete the task of 'football on campus', football exercises were once popular across the country. This kind of 'emphasis on hands-on' Can football training realize our dream of 'breaking out of Asia'?" The words of this football industry insider sound bitter, but they are not unreasonable.
The soil for campus football is like this, but what about the soil for off-campus football?
In the next article, we will continue to discuss.
(Guangming Daily author: Guangming Daily research team members: our reporters Chen Peng, Jin Xiaoyan, Deng Hui, Shang Wenchao, Jin Haotian, Fang Li, Wang Dan)