Song Kai, (center) signs the agreement of establishing China's first football referee academy with representatives from Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Sport and Nanjing Sport Institute. Photo: thecfa.cn
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, an official with the CFA told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Song Kai, president of the CFA, said at a recent signing ceremony in Beijing that building a football referee academy is a crucial step in cultivating a high-level professional football talent pool.
The referee academy aims to align with international high-level referee training models and standards, while focusing on developing a pipeline of elite referee talent. Efforts will be made to explore new approaches to referee training and systematically address existing shortcomings in referee development, Che Hengzhi, deputy director of the media department of the CFA, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Currently, this initiative is being conducted as a pilot program. If conditions allow, similar collaborations may be expanded to qualified institutions in other cities in the future, Che said.
This tripartite collaboration will focus on key areas such as professional referee training, elite referee development, scientific training and practical evaluation, dissemination of theoretical referee 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, according to a report published by the CFA on Monday.
In 2024, the number of registered referees with the CFA reached 20,146, marking a significant increase of 7,337 compared to 2023. This growth highlights the emphasis on building a strong referee team, according to an annual digital report published by the CFA on February 14, which provides data on six major categories including the national team, professional league, youth development and grassroots football.
In 2024, the CFA assigned referees to international competitions a total of 77 times, an increase of 8 from 2023. A total of 162 officiating decision review requests were submitted by professional clubs in 2024, with an accuracy rate of 66.7 percent. In terms of disciplinary actions, the number of penalties in the Chinese Super League (CSL) and China League One (CL1) saw a notable decline compared to the previous year, the report said.
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.
