China has over 24,000 football-featured schools

BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- As of November 2018, China has over 24,000 primary and secondary schools with football education as their main feature, covering 20 million students, according to a China Education Daily report.

Also, the country has launched pilot programs of school football education in more than 130 county-level regions, the report said.

The report said the building of ranks of football teachers has been strengthened, with over 8,800 teachers and 6,800 headmasters receiving relevant training.

In 2018, a total of 25,000 people took part in national high school football league games, and 37,000 participated in national college league games, it said.