3,000 kindergartens to become soccer nurseries

China plans to select 3,000 kindergartens to become soccer nurseries by the end of this year as the authorities push ahead with reforms aimed at making the country a power in the sport, the Ministry of Education said on Tuesday.

Wang Dengfeng, head of the ministry's department of physical, health and arts education, said kindergarten is a key stage in the development of children's sporting interests, habits, understanding and skills, and the kindergartens will conduct game-based soccer training to cultivate pupil's interest in the sport.

The ministry will also give instruction in soccer training to 200 kindergarten teachers and 200 kindergarten principals, he said.

The country also plans to build another 30,000 soccer-focused primary and secondary schools by 2025 to foster children's interest in the sport and promote high-quality coaching, training and competition, Wang said.

China has 24,126 primary and secondary schools with soccer education as their main feature, covering around 20 million students, he said.

To qualify as a soccer-focused school, they must have at least one soccer course each week for all students and also give them after-school soccer training and games in soccer competitions, Wang said.

More than two-thirds of China's primary and secondary schools do not have soccer pitches.

There were more than 120,000 soccer pitches in primary and secondary schools by September, Wang said, but the country has more than 380,000 primary and secondary schools.

"We built, renovated and expanded 32,000 soccer pitches from 2015 to 2018 in schools and another 29,000 will be built by 2020," he said.