By David Gold
October 19 – A delegation from China, including the Chinese Football Association (CFA) chief Wei Di, is in Japan to try to learn from its neighbours’ success on the football field.
It is the latest in a series of visits made by the Chinese to Japan as they look to improve the standard of football in their country.
China has only qualified for the World Cup once and may not even reach the group stage of qualification for Brazil 2014 if they fail to win away to Iraq next month.
They were also humbled by Oman in the London 2012 Olympic Games qualifiers, to whom they lost 4-1 on aggregate.
Conversely, Japan reached the second round of the last World Cup, and were one of the most enterprising teams in the tournament, with a number of talented players competing in Europe’s best leagues, such as Borussia Dortmund’s Shinji Kagawa and Yuto Nagatomo at Inter Milan.
They also lifted the Asian Cup earlier this year, whilst the women’s team won the World Cup for the first time this summer.
The Chinese delegation in China will be meeting Japanese Football Association President Junji Ogura as well as visiting a local high school to see its football facilities.
A series of meetings will be held with football officials, and a visit will be paid to J-League outfit Urawa Red Diamonds.
A research project was begun in June by the Chinese Sports Ministry, hoping to learn more about the development of the sport in the country.
Earlier this year, Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda gave £50 million ($79 million/€57 million) to the CFA in an attempt to boost training and youth development in the country.
There are just 7,000 registered youngsters in Chinese football, a figure dwarfed by the huge numbers across the ocean, where 500,000 participate in youth football in Japan.
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734798070labto1734798070ofdlr1734798070owedi1734798070sni@d1734798070log.d1734798070ivad1734798070
