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China's World Cup hopes begin with children taking the field. What's next?_我的网站

航海王

一 |

Young student athletes compete during the Shijingshan District Primary and Secondary School Football League in Beijing on May 28, 2026. Photo: Li Hao/GTOn youth soccer pitches across China this World Cup summer, one match often seemed to give way immediately to the next. Coaches shifted cones, parents raised phones behind the fence, and children in numbered bibs warmed up along the touchline while the previous teams were still packing away their gear.
It was a busy school break. The national finals of the 2025-26 youth campus soccer league, rounds of the fifth China Youth Football League, city and provincial campus competitions, private club cups and overseas invitationals filled the calendar. Some children played close to home; others spent part of their summer travelling with teammates from one tournament to another.
The sixth 2034 Cup was among the most visible. Its 39 regional qualifiers drew 882 teams and 12,604 players, with 128 teams reaching the finals in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province. Teams from other countries also took part, adding an international element to a tournament aimed at primary-school players, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Does this crowded calendar by itself signal a turnaround for Chinese soccer? China's men last reached the World Cup in 2002. But the summer offered a view of a playing base being built from below and raised a harder question: Can the enthusiasm survive the return to school, unequal access to training and the growing costs borne by families?
From the first touch
In China's youth soccer system, coach Zhao Xinxin works at its broadest and most fundamental level - introducing young children to the game.
He coaches an introductory group of about 15 three-year-olds, three interest classes of 15 to 20 children aged five to 10, and four advanced groups of roughly 10 players aged five to 14. He has worked with more than 100 children over the years.
Starting younger is one of the clearest changes Zhao has observed in recent years. Soccer is appearing not only in schools and social clubs but also in some kindergartens. Most parents initially want an after-school activity that gets their kid moving.
Only when a player begins to stand out do questions about more advanced training and a possible route forward arise.
That route now has several layers. A child in a commercial club can move from introductory and interest classes to advanced teams. A school player may be selected for district and city teams, then enter national campus competitions; professional academies, sports schools and social clubs provide other pathways.
China began promoting campus soccer on a national scale in 2015, when six government departments issued guidelines calling for soccer to be incorporated into school education through designated soccer schools, regular competitions, teacher training and improved facilities, according to the Ministry of Education.
The program has continued to expand while shifting its focus from increasing participation to improving the quality of teaching, training and competition. In 2025, another 4,928 schools were recognized as national youth campus soccer schools, according to the ministry.
The result is more soccer on the calendar. Zhao told the Global Times that youth matches take place somewhere in Beijing almost every week, especially during school holidays. His club's advanced teams play weekend fixtures with referees and standings, as well as regional competitions and finals.
Tournaments such as the 2034 Cup give this broad base a visible target. Soccer commentator and youth-project organizer Dong Lu launched the event in 2021 after repeatedly seeing Chinese social media celebrate Japan's high-school soccer tournament. Its name looks toward the 2034 World Cup, when the first group of participants will be about 25.
Earlier this summer, a team selected through Dong's youth soccer project offered another source of encouragement. The Chinese Football Boy U12 team won all seven matches at the Sigismondi International Youth Cup in Italy, becoming the first Asian team to claim the championship.
Yet Dong cautioned against reading too much into a single championship. Strong players, he said, must emerge from a much broader soccer culture. "Players come from the people around us, from the soil and culture in which they grow," he told the Global Times.
Who can keep playing?
A coach walks his young players to the pitch for a soccer tournament in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GT

A coach walks his young players to the pitch for a soccer tournament in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GTYet the larger test begins after the tournament. Dong acknowledged that most 2034 Cup participants will not become professional players. For many, reaching the finals in Suzhou may serve as a "soccer graduation ceremony" at the end of primary school. The question is whether graduation from primary school must also mean graduation from soccer.
For Zhao, the first major break comes at 12. Children may train throughout primary school, then stop after entering middle school as homework, examinations and family expectations take over - a pattern he calls "retiring at 12."
Campus soccer should be the main way to keep the player pool broad, he said, because school is where nearly every child spends most of the day. More schools now provide soccer classes and in-class competitions, but implementation varies.
Zhao recalled a class tournament in which a child was injured. After a parent complained, the remaining matches were cancelled. Safety concerns are understandable, he said, but cancelling competition altogether removes opportunities from every child.
For families, this is also the stage when soccer stops being a simple extracurricular activity. If a child has shown unusual ability, parents must decide whether to seek stronger teams, change schools, accept more travel and training, or keep soccer only as an interest. The decision depends not only on talent and the child's wishes, but also on educational expectations and how much time and money the household can commit.
The contrast with Europe lies partly in continuity. Zhao cited his nephew in Hungary, who trained at a Barcelona-affiliated academy between the ages of six and eight before being selected by a local club at nine.
Once children join organized training there, he said, they are registered at relatively low cost, and their movement between clubs is recorded in the soccer association's system - closer to transferring schools than simply leaving one commercial course for another.
Dong made a broader comparison. Japan's national team increasingly draws on players who have further developed further in European leagues, while China still relies mainly on its domestic league to prepare future internationals.
In his view, the two systems operate like production lines with different competitive standards. Young Chinese players therefore need more high-level matches, whether foreign teams come to China, Chinese teams travel abroad or selected players enter overseas leagues.
But overseas training cannot substitute for a domestic system, nor is it open to every family. Zhao said it requires ability, physical readiness, money and the capacity to adapt to a different language, diet and daily life. Some parents send a child abroad; others move with them, reorganizing work and family life around soccer without knowing whether the child will ever turn professional.
For now, the most telling test may come not in 2034, but this coming September, when a child enters a new grade and decides whether there is still time in the week for soccer.
。 Sophie 编译 Chlöe Swarbrick宣布角逐绿党联合党魁一职，证实了广泛的猜测。 James Shaw本周宣布将辞职，绿党将有一个联合党魁的职位空缺。 Advertise with us 无论谁担任这一职位，都将与另一位联合党魁Marama Davidson密切合作。 Swarbrick今早在国会宣布参选。 “我是一名自豪的绿党成员。我们比任何其他政党都更明白，社区中存在的领导力远远超过所谓的权力大厅。我在这里是为了服务我的社区。” “在过去的三天里，他们要求我站出来，争取这个职位。

二 | ” “如果成为联合党魁，我想告诉这个国家的每一个人，他们拥有可以选择我们未来的力量。” 1News昨天报道了Swarbrick有望竞选该职位。此前，她一直在与党团会议的同事和朋友讨论她是否应该参加竞选。 “毫无疑问，我从来没有渴望过这样的东西，我真正坚持的理念比任何一个人都重要。所以我更关注党派，而不是我自己。

三 | ”Swarbrick周三说。该职位的提名将于2月14日截止，新的联合党魁预计将于3月10日宣布。 Swarbrick说：“传统的、渐进式的政治已经无法应对我们面临的挑战——那些交织在一起的气候、不平等、生物多样性和住房危机。我们不能把政治交给政客。” “接下来的几个星期里，我将与绿党成员讨论我对未来行动的愿景，并请求他们信任我。” “如果我当选，我将与Marama Davidson共同努力，我将推动绿党的行动，实现切实的、现实的、以人为本的变革——就像我一直以来所做的那样——但现在，规模更大。” Swarbrick还抨击了政府的“残酷议程”，并表示她将致力于实现“我们国家的第一个由绿党主导的政府”。还有谁可能参加竞选？ Swarbrick将是最突出的竞争者，她目前在绿党名单上排名第三，但她可能面临竞争。上次大选中排名第五的议员Teanau Tuiono，曾在两年前公开表示考虑竞选党魁职务。

四 | Julie Anne Genter也可能参加竞选，她是党团会议中任职时间最长的议员。另一位知名的国会议员Ricardo Menéndez March表示，他不打算报名竞选。工党党魁Chris Hipkins说，下一任联合党魁是绿党的事，但当被追问时，他说他认为“很可能”是Swarbrick。

五 | 联合党魁如何产生？绿党成员将在提名结束后的地方会议上投票选出他们喜欢的候选人。每个分会有权获得一定数量的选票，与该地区的成员数量成比例。

六 | 过去，绿党要求一位联合党魁是男性，另一位是女性，但这在2022年改变了。现在，对联合党魁的要求是，其中必须有一名女性，另一位可以是任何性别。

七 | 该党还规定，必须有一位联合党魁是毛利人。Marama Davidson同时满足了这两个要求。

八 | 3月10日之后，无论谁得到该职位，每年都将面临考验，绿党的联合党魁在每年的年度大会上选举产生。

九 | 相关阅读：突发！James Shaw将辞去绿党联合党魁一职注：本文为编译/原创，欢迎转发分享；但严禁复制等未经授权的非法使用。违反上述声明者，本网将追究其相关法律责任。使用授权请联系[email protected]。

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