Report by our chinese collaborator Li Jing

The 2007 Umbro Chinese futsal league Division 1 will kick off in Chengdu on Jan. 12. The Six league teams will play in single round robin in each of the six host cities since January to August. The next round will be played in Shanghai in February. Chinese Central TV will broadcast live one game in each of the six rounds. It is said that the TV coverage has brought more TV audiences to Futsal. According to the statistics, the national TV audience rate has reached the same point as the China football super league.

Chinese Football Association has established the national futsal league since 2003. Six football key cities had been chosen to be involved in the event since then: Beijing, Dalian, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Chengdu. However, the CFA futsal league experienced uncertainties during the past years: the withdrawal of Dalian Shide FC in 2005, the disbandment of Chengdu Lummy Futsal team in 2006 and the withdrawal of Guangzhou FA's futsal team in this year are the setbacks of the Chinese futsal development.

Fortunately, these futsal teams were replaced by the university teams due to the futsal popularity gained in the university campus. Four teams of six in the national futsal league come from university clubs, while one is a football academy.

Besides the league games, in 2006, CFA organized the FA Cup tournament in which 16 futsal teams across the country participated. It is expected that more teams will be present in the national league in the near future.

So far, there are two major futsal tournaments in China. One is the Umbro China futsal league division 1, the other one is the Lining China university futsal league. About 400 universities all over China have teams in the university futsal league. In Chengdu futsal has been adopted by most of the primary schools which have the school playing ground quite suitable to this sport. Students at age ranging from 6-10 have been undergoing the futsal training. Obviously, futsal has become more and more popular in this country.



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com