Avid football fan, Chinese president Xi Jinping has asked that the national football team sucks less, of course not in those words but he asked to see an improvement. The only time, which happened to be also the last time that China qualified for the World Cup was back in 2002.
Soccer is a popular sport in China but national team’s disappointing performances have harden the most optimistic of fans. Two weeks ago, the education minister, Yuan Guiren, in a national conference on the promotion of soccer in schools stated that in assessing the overall achievements of students, soccer skills will be graded as per a report by the China Daily.
Yuan also said that schools would have their facilities inspected to check on their efforts made to make the sport more inclusive for the kids. In the physical education class, soccer skills would be compulsory to provide more opportunities for students to play soccer professionally.
Additionally, the government will set up more soccer academies by 2017 to about 20,000 primary and middle schools. China Daily wrote: In July, the education ministry laid out plans to establish soccer tournaments in primary, junior and high schools as well as colleges. Enrollment policies will be relaxed so it will be easier for schools and colleges to recruit talented footballers. Also, plans to train as many as 6,000 soccer teachers in 2015.
