A retired soccer player of Tianjin Soccer Team is coaching the young boys.

I know a young man who isn’t exactly shining at school, but he is being pursued by one of the top universities in England, and also a prestigious university in America. They both want this student for reasons that are the same but different. The university in England wants him to play rugby for them and so has offered him a full scholarship. The university in America wants him to play basketball for them. You see he is very tall and is a gifted sportsman. He is facing a dilemma, albeit a nice one, as, if he were to play rugby, which he loves, he would have to bulk up, which would prevent him from jumping too high – essential in basketball and he really wants to go to America. His mother also wants him to take his chances in America, after all it is not every day that an International opportunity comes calling. Probably the only point that is relevant here, although, as far as Chinese people are concerned, is totally irrelevant, is that fact the being good at sports will open doors that would usually remain shut to the average Joe.

I spoke to a Chinese friend about this young man today, because hot on the news in China is the fact that they want to promote football in schools. This is good news for the students – and also bad news. My friend could not believe that someone could get a full scholarship just on the basis that they are good at sports. American readers will no doubt wonder what the problem is. Chinese people can never understand the psychology behind the Western attitude towards sports. If they visited any of the wonderful International Schools in Tianjin, they would marvel at the “wasted” space” devoted to playing fields. They would lament at all the “wasted hours” on the timetable devoted to sports when the kids could be studying maths, and more maths. They cannot understand why a golden opportunity to enter a prestigious university should be wasted on someone who is not excelling academically. This is an opportunity that most students can only dream of.

We believe that playing sports has myriad benefits. Apart from the obvious physical ones, playing sports builds character and fosters a spirit of teamwork. It increases endurance. At this level it promotes healthy competition. I am not sure what the situation is in America regarding the salaries of sportsmen, but in Europe, footballers are amongst the highest paid professionals. In England footballers in the top flight earn more than the Prime Minister. As an example, one player, Wayne Rooney was reported to earn £300,000 ($439,129.83) per week. So football is something that many young boys want to do as a career, and many young women hope to be able to snare a rich footballer as a husband.

Needless to say the fact that the thinking processes and attitudes of Westerners are different to Chinese people surely has a little to do with the fact that we view sports and the arts as an important part of the school curriculum. In an effort to improve the image, popularity and lamentable state of Chinese football, there are plans afoot to make football take on a more important role in Chinese schools. This is currently a very hot topic.

However, there are several problems. Practically, there are issues that need to be resolved. Firstly the question has been asked, if Chinese children are to play football, where are the football pitches to come from? Many Chinese schools do not have additional playing fields like the Western schools have and there is a dearth of land available to build any. Some schools have a basketball net or two, but they are usually in a small playground that the whole school has to use.

The Chinese education system takes lessons, any kind of lessons very seriously, and football will be no different. If it is to be introduced into the schools, it will need to be introduced properly and the students will be required to have a test on the subject. Yes that’s right, a test. Many parents are very worried that their children, who are already overloaded with lessons and tests will collapse under the load.

Sport is supposed to relax people and release stress, not create it. There has been talk about providing football “lectures”. I ask why? It is impossible to imagine that there will be an exam on football. If this is the case it will kill interest in it, not motivate kids to want to play.

A soccer team in a local primary school is practicing.

A recent report had this to say: - “Regarding the introduction of football into schools, the questions that need to be answered are numerous and complex. How to cultivate students’ interest in football? How to take into account students’ age, physical and mental development, and characteristics of the targeted soccer science training content? How to distinguish gender and implement different football curriculums? These are urgent questions”.

Surely it is getting a little too complicated. There seems to be too much talking and planning and worrying about it all. There is too much overthinking being done. Shouldn’t they just give the kids a ball and let them kick it?

As previously said, one important reason the Chinese authorities are keen to get kids playing football, is to raise the image of Chinese football, particularly on the International stage. Another extract from a news report highlighted this:- “The State Council held a youth campus football teleconference, it proposed that the Ministry of Education will promote campus football, and introduce a series of measures to raise the profile of school football, promote the popularity of school football, encourage youth physical fitness, all-round development and strengthen the national football talent pool”. There was also talk of “a sense of earnest competition and physical literacy training”. The report even contradicted what I said about kicking a ball around by saying: “Thus, introducing football into the campus is far from being a simple kick”. It went on to talk about the attainment of national sports and the ardent desire for football to flourish and achieve expectations. Finally it even went on to say “Thus, this is definitely not an education departments’ and schools matter, it should become the focus of attention of the whole society who should become concerned about all aspects of sports, education, health, professional teams, football clubs, professional venues, community etc.”

It is all getting a bit serious and complicated. If these methods are adopted, they will strangle and kill any enjoyment of the game. Introducing a sport along with a mandatory test will indeed result in extra burdens for Chinese students. Chinese students already have to put up with the fact that in PE, they have to run distances in a certain time, for which they get marks, and it is all part of the marks scheme. Imagine failing a football test and flunking because of a game. A famous English football Manager once said “Some think football is a matter of life or death – they’re wrong, it’s far more serious than that”. These words seem somewhat ominous now.