Reform highlights national football team, leadership

Professionals will be given greater importance and offered more important positions in the ongoing reform of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), media reported Tuesday.

The association is expected to announce the largest-ever reform on personnel at the plenary meeting held on Tuesday, and a reshuffle of leadership is expected to be made, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

As of press time, no news on the reform had been announced, while the Beijing Youth Daily predicted that the reshuffle will include more professional personnel from football club, as well as retired national football players.

Former football stars Sun Wen and Zhao Junzhe, former club manager Lin Lefeng, and former coach Li Shubin have already been involved in the CFA, according to the Beijing Youth Daily.

Previous reforms of the CFA shows that the association will focus on youth training, marketing and operating, as well as efforts to improve the national football team, said the report.

"This act is expected to improve the administrative capability of the CFA," Liu Xiaoxin, chief editor of Guangzhou-based newspaper Soccer News, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"More attention and importance could be placed on football due to the reshuffle," Liu said.

However, the focus of Chinese football fans seems more simple and straight-forward.

"We will cheer as long as the national team makes improvements in its performance on the field," a football fan surnamed Guo told Global Times on Tuesday.

Apart from poor performance in international games, China's national football team and football administrators were in a tight spot due to scandals such as corruption, fighting and abuse, and lack of professional management.