Re-taking the Long March - China Football Development Seminar opened in Xi'an

Reporter Rumi Xi'an reports On the morning of December 17, the 2024 China Football Development Seminar, jointly sponsored by Football and Xi'an Sports Bureau, was successfully held at the Xi'an Sports Training Center. Song Kai, Chairman of the Chinese Football Association, Cheng Xu, head of the Youth Department of the Chinese Football Association (Football City Office), representatives of investors and general managers of major Chinese Super League and Chinese League A clubs, as well as relevant persons in charge of 16 key cities for football development in China, gathered together to discuss many topics of Chinese football development such as youth training construction, grassroots football, and the construction of key cities for football development, and the participants responded enthusiastically.

Last year, this newspaper held a new ecological seminar and high-quality development forum for the club in Renhuai, Guizhou, which attracted the attention of the industry, and this year another year-end event belonging to Chinese footballers was successfully held in Xi'an - the theme of this seminar is "re-taking the Long March Road", which means that Chinese football needs to learn from that difficult history, learn the spirit of life to death, and the attitude of seeking truth from facts and adapting measures to local conditions.

It is worth mentioning that just before the opening of this meeting, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council presided over an executive meeting of the State Council on December 16, which studied the work related to the revitalization and development of football, and pointed out that "the revitalization of football is the key work of building a sports power, and it is necessary to increase efforts to implement various policies and measures to promote football work to a new level." In the face of opportunities and challenges, how to develop professional clubs, how to improve the level of the national team, and how to build youth training have become issues that need to be rethought by Chinese football practitioners.

In the keynote speech on the morning of the 17th, Xiao Qi, deputy mayor of Xi'an Municipal People's Government, as the "host", welcomed the arrival of the participants, and also shared the relevant measures of Xi'an as a key football city for the development of football, and expressed warm expectations for the success of this seminar.

Subsequently, Liu Xiaoxin, president of this newspaper, gave a keynote speech on "Chinese football re-embarks on the Long March". Liu Xiaoxin pointed out that Chinese football in the trough needs a "new Long March", which also requires practitioners to have a strong sense of crisis, and the spirit of living to the death and the attitude of seeking truth from facts, not only to adapt measures to local conditions, but also to meet the needs of the times, "re-take the Long March road", is a necessary choice under the new national system.

Cheng Xu, head of the Youth Department of the Chinese Football Association (Football City Office), carried out a keynote speech on "Improving the Quality of the Youth Training System Based on the Construction of Key Cities" under the background of Article 50 of the "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football". Cheng Xu first introduced the work program and assessment system of key football cities, and listed detailed data to introduce the progress of the Chinese Football Association in the training of professional talents, the development of professional football, venue facilities and other aspects. In addition, Cheng Xu reviewed the work of the youth department in the past year in the youth talent training system, the improvement of competition selection, the popularization of football basic norms, and the improvement of technical training, and listed the key work goals for 2025.

In the speeches of representatives of key football cities, Ma Rui, director of Xi'an Sports Bureau, and Tian Weiguo, executive vice chairman and secretary general of Qingdao Football Association, shared their respective experiences.

Ma Rui, director of the Xi'an Sports Bureau, who was also the host of the seminar, shared Xi'an's experience and harvest in the process of "making every effort to promote the construction of key cities for national football development" from the three dimensions of "deeply understanding the mission of building a key city for national football development", "consolidating the foundation of key cities for national football development" and "making new breakthroughs in promoting the construction of key cities for national football development". Ma Rui emphasized that as a key city for football development in the northwest region, Xi'an needs to make use of its location advantages and give full play to its driving effect.

Tian Weiguo, executive vice chairman and secretary general of Qingdao Football Association, expounded the work priorities and work ideas of Qingdao Football Association with the title of "Reform and Innovation to the Future, Key Cities Build New Contributions", and introduced Qingdao's work achievements in hosting high-end events, improving the construction of key national football cities, strengthening professional football, and expanding mass football. In addition, the Qingdao Football Association has not forgotten to consolidate the foundation of youth training, and has always insisted on strengthening the construction of youth training centers, improving the training and competition system, promoting the construction of campus football, and enhancing international youth football exchanges.

In addition, Xu Ming, chairman of the Xinjiang Football Association, was also specially invited to this event. In the keynote speech in the morning, he also brought his thoughts on the development of grassroots football in China from four aspects: "the origin and purpose of grassroots football associations", "how to develop youth football", "how to prosper social football", and "pilot exploration of grassroots football in Kashgar".

After the keynote speeches in the morning, all the guests took a group photo. On the afternoon of the 17th, Song Kai, Chairman of the Chinese Football Association, Gu Jiqing, Vice President of Shanghai Jiushi Group and Chairman and General Manager of Shanghai Shenhua Football Club, Tang Xigang, CEO of City Football Group China and Chairman and General Manager of Shenzhen Xinpengcheng Club, Li Ying, head of ByteDance's football public welfare project, and Chen Yong, chief reporter of this newspaper, will continue to deliver speeches at the seminar to discuss the future of Chinese football.