Football into the university undergraduate do you study?

Football has become an undergraduate major in China.

On March 19, the Ministry of Education announced the results of the filing and approval of undergraduate majors in ordinary colleges and universities in 2023, and released the catalog of undergraduate majors in ordinary colleges and universities in 2024. The catalogue contains a total of 93 majors and 816 majors, including football majors among the 24 new undergraduate majors.

What exactly do you learn in this science of football?

The university offers a football undergraduate, can the national football team enter the World Cup?

Upgrade from special to professional

According to the public information of the Ministry of Education, the newly established football major belongs to the category of physical education, and a total of 30 colleges and universities across the country, including Beijing Sport University and Shanghai Sport University, have added majors.

In fact, before it was upgraded to an undergraduate major this year, football was one of the subdivisions of the "special projects" set up under the sports training and physical education majors, which were on a par with athletics, swimming and other sports.

Yu Yang, the founder of Kashiwagi Sports, who is engaged in the training of sports students, said to China News Weekly that this aspect is the further implementation of the 2015 "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football" (hereinafter referred to as the "Football Reform Plan"), and it is also related to the "Guiding Opinions on Further Improving and Standardizing the Enrollment of High-level Sports Teams in Colleges and Universities" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions") issued by the Ministry of Education in 2021.

The "Football Reform Plan" does not clearly stipulate that football should be turned into an undergraduate major, but it does put forward relevant guidelines for "establishing football professional colleges and schools to meet the needs of football talent training". The "Guiding Opinions" have increased the enrollment requirements of high-level sports teams in major universities, so it is necessary to add majors to cope with the problem of reducing the number of students brought about by the increase in enrollment requirements.

Yu Yang said when analyzing the similarities between football from "special" to "professional", "The newly established football major and sports training major football specialty, students have obtained a degree in education, and candidates must have a national first-class and second-class athlete grade certificate as a 'threshold' for sports single recruitment examinations." From the perspective of the direction and goal of professional training, it is 'generally the same, but slightly different'. ”

For example, the "2024 Enrollment Measures for Football Majors" issued by Beijing Sport University clearly states that it is necessary to cultivate compound application-oriented talents with strong practical ability, high comprehensive quality and great development potential who can be engaged in football teaching and training guidance, football competition organization and management, football culture promotion, and football industry development in schools, professional sports teams, sports clubs and social (sports training) institutions.

In the enrollment methods of the remaining 29 institutions, the relevant descriptions of training objectives are similar to those of Beijing Sport University. On the whole, in the description of training objectives, colleges and universities generally put the skills of engaging in football teaching and training guidance in the first place.

For example, Beijing Sport University offers courses such as Introduction to Football Industry and Football Culture, while Jianghan University offers courses such as Football Economics and History of Football Development at China and Foreign Countries.

"According to the current information, in the past and present, the core goal of colleges and universities will still be towards the training of football coaches and youth coaches. Of course, after football is upgraded to an undergraduate major, colleges and universities can now further set up subdivisions under the football major according to their own plans, such as training football referees. There is reason to believe that the professionalism of teaching in the field of football subdivision will be further improved. Yu Yang said.

In March 2015, candidates participated in the special test of high-level athletes of the men's football team at Tsinghua University that year Photo/China News Photo by Chen Jiannan from China News Service

Going to school and playing professionally?

China News Weekly noticed that Shandong University of Physical Education specifically mentioned in the enrollment instructions that the basic study period is 4 years and the study period is 3-8 years.

For college football students, on the one hand, there may be special circumstances of suspension and repetition, and on the other hand, due to the particularity of the football industry, it cannot be ignored that some students still have the possibility of obtaining professional team contracts through trial training during college and university.

China News Weekly has learned that in order to facilitate the switch between the two identities of "football students" and "professional players", some colleges and universities that offer football majors may consider the "flexible setting" of the study period according to their respective rules and regulations and actual conditions.

In addition to Shandong Institute of Physical Education, Jianghan University is also more typical. Jiang Guoqin, dean of the School of Physical Education of Jianghan University, told China News Weekly that Jianghan University is relatively special in that it is the first women's football club in the country to be established, and it is also the only university in the country that initially built a women's football professional club with the student army as the main body.

Wang Shuang, the number one star of the Chinese women's football team, is from Jianghan University Photo/China News Photo by China News Service reporter Yin Liqin

This means that if a candidate for a women's football program applies for the football major of Jianghan University, he will have the opportunity to become a member of the Wuhan women's football team after meeting the admission standards in terms of sports single recruitment and cultural performance. At the same time, because Jianghan University has a ready-made women's football professional club, the subsequent admitted candidates can rely on it as a cutting-edge platform to receive relevant football professional course education, carry out relevant research and internship "near the water", and even become a member of the football industry chain in advance, which has the practical significance of the integration of "production, education and research".

In addition, Jiang Guoqin believes that when the football major opens, some of them have professional echelon experience, and candidates who come to colleges and universities can try to study while playing football, which has relevant advantages in this regard. "For example, colleges and universities can improve the understanding and cognition of football students through relevant make-up classes and cultural learning during the intermission, which may have a certain role in promoting the thinking awareness and sports skills of football students. In addition, this model will also play a leading role for high-level athletes who have not entered a professional team. ”

China News Weekly noted that among all the colleges and universities that offer football majors, Jianghan University has also put forward a relatively rare reward plan: for the admitted athletes with technical qualifications and above, a total of 20,000 yuan will be awarded during the four-year period of school, and for the outstanding athletes with first-class athlete technical level qualifications, a total of 16,000 yuan will be awarded during the four-year period of the school.

2016 National University Football League Yunnan Division Match Photo/China News Photo Photo by China News Service reporter Ren Dong

Is it easy to learn football and find a job?

After 30 colleges and universities offer football majors, there is also a major focus on the direction of employment after graduation.

For football majors, with the development of football careers and professional football leagues, their career options after graduation will be further diversified. In addition to the core direction of football coaching, as explained in the enrollment plans of various universities, you can also engage in related work in many subdivisions of the football industry, such as competition management, refereeing, etc.

Wang Yuxiong, director of the Sports Economics Research Center at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told China News Weekly that on the issue of employment, it is inevitable that the most critical part of the football industry, the professional football league, can play a leading role. "It is necessary to further improve the business environment and support policies for the development of the professional football industry, and absorb as much social capital as possible, so that in all levels of professional leagues, each team can create more jobs in subdivided fields. ”

"For example, football video analysts, trainers, special coaches, football equipment managers, scouts, etc., especially after the club's economic strength has developed to a certain level, there will be further requirements and needs for the construction of professional subdivisions. Wang Yuxiong said.

In addition, if football students do not enter the professional football field to make a living after graduation, they may make a huge supplement to grassroots physical education and football education. Guo Yang, founder of ECO Krypton, a sports content and industry service platform, told China News Weekly, "At present, there are 30 schools offering football undergraduate majors, and if you calculate according to 30 people in each school, there will be nearly 1,000 graduates in each class." If most of them enter the youth training institutions and persist for a few years, they may be able to effectively feed back the talent training of grassroots football. ”

Guo Yang said that the current number of excellent grassroots football youth coaches is relatively scarce, and the survival of youth coaches and youth training institutions needs to be paid enough attention. "All relevant parties need to further work together to solve the problems related to the business of youth training institutions, as well as the pain points related to venues, students, and outlets, and gain the recognition of parents for training and pay for it, so that the survival of youth training institutions and the development of youth coaches are relatively sustainable. Of course, in terms of the general environment, this requires the football industry to collectively create a sunny image from top to bottom, and attract the majority of young people to actively participate in football to form a virtuous circle. ”

To a certain extent, the views of the interviewees represent the perception of the industry, and they all believe that football majors still need time, patience and cultivation and construction to enter undergraduate majors, and may not have short-term stimulus for the results of national teams at all levels. However, when there are more and more excellent coaches rooted in the grassroots and more and more professionals in the field of football, in the long run, the pyramid of Chinese football will become more solid and thick.

Author: Ye Zhufeng