2025 China Football Year-End Review: The Football Association Takes a Crucial Step

Written by Han Bing For the Chinese Football Association, 2025 stands as a milestone year. Beginning with the second session of the 12th Member Congress on January 9, the association facilitated the founding of the Chinese Football League Federation, taking a decisive step in separating the management and operation of professional leagues. Achievements were made in building the national team, advancing youth football, and broadening football diplomacy. Efforts included constructing national, regional, and provincial youth training centers and improving youth competitions to foster football development; in terms of “going abroad” and “bringing in,” China successfully hosted the U17 Women’s Asian Cup and U20 Men’s Asian Cup, while also organizing multiple international matches domestically to provide opportunities for all national team levels to gain experience.

The establishment of the Chinese Football League Federation is the foremost achievement of the association this year. It signifies a decisive step toward separating the management and operation of China’s professional football leagues. Additionally, the association continued last year’s referee review initiative, evaluating and publishing decisions on controversial calls raised by clubs, which helped maintain fairness and transparency in the league to some extent.

One of the main focuses of the association’s work this year remained youth football development. Beyond further refining domestic youth competitions like the China Youth League and U-series leagues, emphasis was placed on collaborating with other departments to build a national-level football academy and five regional youth training centers. On November 15, the National Football Youth Training Center was officially inaugurated at the Beijing National Olympic Sports Center, with three of the five regional centers established in Suzhou, Shenzhen, and Xi’an. Provincial and municipal youth training centers also saw significant progress.

The association intensified efforts in “going abroad” and “bringing in,” launching a talent overseas training strategy and actively promoting overseas competitions for national teams of various age groups. In early April, the second season of “Chasing the Dream in the Bundesliga” began at Borussia Mönchengladbach, where the U16 national team trained and competed; later, the U15 team participated in the Development Cup in Minsk, and the U16 men’s and women’s teams took part in the Montaigu Tournament. The women’s national team conducted warm-up tours in Spain, the United States, and England, with overseas matches throughout the year. The association also encouraged youth players to go abroad, facilitating Wei Xiangxin’s move to the reserve squad of Ligue 1 club Auxerre.

National team development continued to improve: in August, Jurjevic was appointed head coach of the U18 team; on November 5, after over four months of selection, Shao Jiayi was confirmed as the new head coach of the senior men’s team; on November 22, Zhou Haibin and Spanish coach David took charge of the U14 and U15 teams respectively; additionally, the women’s national team may see a coaching change soon.

In April and May, Association Chairman Song Kai attended the AFC and FIFA congresses, meeting with AFC President Salman and FIFA Secretary-General Fatma Samoura; at the end of May, he met AFC Secretary-General Windsor John in Wuhan. In areas such as youth training, women’s football development, and hosting international events, the Chinese Football Association engaged in deep exchanges with the two federations. Furthermore, in May, Song visited Spain, meeting the heads of the Spanish Football Federation and La Liga; in August and October, the association signed cooperation memoranda with the Vietnamese and French football federations, actively promoting international collaboration.

Bidding for international tournaments was a key focus for the association. On April 14, it successfully secured hosting rights for three consecutive editions (2026-2028) of the U17 Women’s Asian Cup, to be held in Suzhou; on December 4, it won the bid for the 2027 U20 Men’s Asian Cup, which will take place in Hangzhou. The association also hosted the U15 East Asian Cup (Zhangzhou), U17 Men’s Asian qualifiers (Chongqing), and U23 Men’s Asian qualifiers (Xi’an). Additionally, Wuhan hosted the 2024/25 Women’s AFC Champions League semifinals (May) and the 2025/26 Women’s AFC Champions League group stage (November).

Besides bidding for international events, the association actively organized domestic competitions to provide high-level warm-up opportunities for national teams of all age groups. The U16 men’s team participated in four-nation tournaments in Hohhot (May), Shenyang (July), and Xianghe (October), facing strong Asian teams such as Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Australia, Japan, Uzbekistan, South Korea, and North Korea; the U23 men’s team took part in high-level friendly matches in Yancheng (March), Kunming (October), and Chengdu (December).

Although the results of national teams at all levels in 2025 were not entirely satisfactory, the association’s tangible achievements in national team building, youth football development, and international tournament bidding are evident to all.