Chongming: to build a leading football county in China

The 2016 China Football Summit, which is to be organized by Pioneer Sports and co-hosted by Chongming Sports Bureau, will take place in Chongming, Shanghai from May 26th to 27th.

Why Chongming County?

The organizers decided to host the Summit in Chongming partly because of the county’s ambition to develop football and Xu Genbao’s investment in youth football in that area.

Chongming, as a county of Shanghai and the third largest island in China, rolled out the plan to develop football in the area last July as part of the county’s overall development strategy. Under the plan, Shanghai Sports Bureau, Shanghai Education Commission and Chongming County will work together to boost campus football and grassroots football in the county. More importantly, the sides then decided to co-organize a professional football club with legendary Chinese coach Xu Genbao, in an effort to make Chongming a leading county in football across China.

Xu Genbao, who built a football base in Chongming in 2001, is a very important figure in Chinese football. Xu didn’t start building the football base until June 2000. And he faced and overcame financial difficulties with his operation at the early stages.

In order to build a football base with higher standards, Xu raised over RMB20 million from the bank. And then he reached a RMB1 million sponsorship deal with his friend Wang Jianlin, China’s richest man. From then on, Xu also secured several sponsorship deals with the likes of Mizuno, Golden Throat Candy and Wahaha in order to operate the base. In addition, Xu also worked with the Chongming Tourist Administration to make the football base a tourist attraction. The base also sells football-related merchandise.

After one and a half years’ work in the youth academy, Xu Genbao and his partners have managed to bring through the likes of Wulei, Zhang Linpeng, Cai Huikang, Bai Jiajun and Lv Wenjun who are now establishing themselves in the CSL.  Xu once stated, “If we could find five stars out of every one hundred kids at our base, we would see our investment pay off.”

After all Xu has done, Chongming County established a joint football club with him, named Shanghai Chongming Genbao FC. Under the plan, the club will firstly compete in China League Two, China’s third tier football league, and then will strive for promotion to China League One by 2020.

Apart from Xu Genbao’s great efforts in youth football, Chongming, as the third largest island in China itself, has distinct advantages in developing football compared to other districts of Shanghai. Firstly, almost every school in Chongming has a football pitch close by. Secondly, the Genbao Base, with its code of “Best Practice,” will enable the children in Chongming to have more games and the talented kids to be potentially turned into professionals.

In order to integrate football development with the economic and social development in the county, Chongming devised a “Three-Step” strategy. The short-term goal will potentially see campus football improve in environment and involvement by the end of 2017. In the meantime, the county is also set to build an elite team, which will be made up of juniors from Chongming-based schools, with the objective of becoming one of the leading youth teams in the country.

Additionally, Chongming County plans to significantly drive the involvement in campus football by the end of 2020 and to establish a system to cultivate young football talent. In the meanwhile, the county also expects to see Shanghai Chongming Genbao FC promoted to China League One.

Furthermore, Chongming County aims to build Chongming into an influential football county in China with a leading football environment, campus football, a strong football culture and a rich talent pool.

We can tell that Xu Genbao and Shanghai Chongming County will continue to invest a lot in developing the sport of football in the area. As a supporting organization of the 2016 China Football Summit, which is to be hosted by Pioneer Sports, Yutang Sports will attend the Summit next month when industry experts in football will meet and share their insights on the Chinese football industry in Chongming, Shanghai.

China Football Summit 2016

The China Football Summit 2016 (CFS 2016) will be held in Shanghai from 26th to 27th May. The Summit will concentrate on the following topics, namely analyses on the governmental reform and policy around the game, the campus soccer plan and the impact of media rights on professional leagues etc. The CFS 2016 will assemble a list of experts, who are interested in Chinese soccer, to substantially discuss how much commercial potential that Chinese soccer holds. 

The China Football Summit 2016 will be hosted by Pioneer Sports. Yutang Sports will fully track the CFS 2016 as a supportive organization. Pioneer Sports is a professional sports company with expertise in soccer-related services and strategic management around soccer. The company is dedicated to serving as a professional exchange platform for Chinese soccer and international soccer.

For more information, please access http://www.pioneersports.cn/Football2016/index.html

Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin.