China to establish first-ever football referee academy

The Chinese Football Association (CFA), together with the Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Sport and Nanjing Sport Institute in East China's Jiangsu Province, will jointly establish China's first-ever football referee academy, according to a report published on the official website of CFA on Monday.

Song Kai, president of CFA, said at a signing ceremony in Beijing that building a football referee academy is a crucial step in cultivating a high-level professional football talent pool. 

As China's first football referee academy, it must start at a high level, aligning with international standards and training models for elite referees, with the goal of developing top-tier referee reserves. The academy aims to explore new models for referee training and systematically address current shortcomings in referee development, Song said. 

This tripartite collaboration will focus on key areas such as professional referee training, elite referee development, scientific training and practical evaluation, dissemination of referee theoretical knowledge, and international referee exchanges. This initiative will create a new landscape for large-scale training and high-end development of football referees in China.

Wu Bingcheng, president and deputy Party secretary of Nanjing Sport Institute, said that the institute attaches great importance to this strategic cooperation. The school will actively respond to the nation's call to revitalize football, leverage its strengths, and mobilize all available resources to advance the development of the academy. Additionally, it is committed to building a top-tier training base for football referees in China and a high-level reserve talent development center for football officiating, the report said.

Liu Tong, deputy director of the Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Sport, said that the bureau will take on greater responsibility in football development, shifting its focus from winning gold medals to prioritizing talent cultivation, thereby contributing to the healthy growth of Chinese football.