Soccer in China gets a good plan at last

While China is still struggling to qualify for the 2018 Football World Cup, it has set an ambitious goal to become a dominant soccer power in Asia by 2030 and a leading soccer power in the world by 2050.

The long-term goal was announced by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning body, early this month. Although some soccer fans doubt whether the goal can be realized, the State-level policy for the uplift of soccer in the country is a welcome move. In fact, such plans have also been taken by traditional soccer powers in Asia, such as Japan and South Korea, and superpowers like Brazil and Germany.

In 2013, the South Korea soccer association set a goal to be among the top-10 world soccer powers by 2033, promising to raise the annual budget to 300 billion won ($270 million) to support the ambitious plan. South Korea also hopes to increase the number of soccer players in the country to 10 million by then. Benefiting from the policy, the South Korean national team now plays more friendlies with the world's top teams and has won the right to host the 2017 Under-20 World Cup.