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Yuan Weimin
President, Chinese Football Association
Coming soon...

With the creation of the C-League in 1994, the Chinese football world was set for a period of exciting growth. The newly established pro clubs brought in excellent players and coaches from overseas to influence the league strongly. The local Chinese players emerged in a high level environment which taught them both the technical and mental skills necessary.
In 2002 the national team made it through the Asian qualifiers for the first time ever to progress to the World Cup finals. At the club level too Chinese clubs such as Dalian Shide, Shenzhen Pharmaceutical and Shandong Luneng were also achieving good results versus rivals from Japan and Korea Rep. in the AFC Champions League competition to find Asia’s number 1 club team. As for the women, they became a world beating force and competed in and won finals ranging from youth level to full national team. They then gained back to back experience hosting international football tournaments such as the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2008 Beijing Olympics. There was no mistaking that the world of Chinese football held a lot of power.
However, having hosted those two huge events China has currently undergone a reversal of fortunes. China PR’s team results were unsatisfactory at both the Women’s World Cup and at the Olympics. The men’s team has failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup finals for the last two qualification campaigns. At the club level too, recent international competition results have been poor. Can the good results of the past be recreated in the future? Now is an important time in deciding the future of the Chinese football world

 As of July 2009