【China Startup】国人不爱足球?! Making China love football

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The famous American novelist Toni Morrison once said, “If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” That quote perhaps best describes the journey of Rowan Simons and his innovative football venture in China.

During his first few visits to China, Simons, a British national, identified that the football market there was relatively underdeveloped. There weren’t enough clubs or teams at grassroots levels, despite the fact that there existed a huge fan base for football in China.

“I first came to China the late 1980s. The first thing I did is find a football club, like I was used to in England, but there was no club in China at all. So I think from the first day I arrived in China, it was always my ambition to have a football club,” recounts Rowan Simons, chairman of China ClubFootball.

It took him many years since that first trip, but over time, his desire for a club grew into a vision for a groundbreaking venture called China ClubFootball, which he launched in Beijing in 2001.

The idea was simple, i.e., to establish a league for amateur players in Beijing that was run with the professionalism seen in international football leagues. The revenue stream would be two-fold – from membership fees and sponsors.

However, for success to follow, what mattered the most was the development of a community spirit around the game.

That, Simons identified, was the key to growth in a country where fans had often found themselves disappointed with the performances of the national men’s and women’s teams, which are currently ranked 81st and 17th in the world, respectively.

“People shouldn’t just love the beauty of football at the top level, but the beauty of football at community level,” says Simons.

In order to ensure a community culture, Simons decided to incorporate an English formula, i.e., a focus on club football. The idea was to bring people together and cultivate a sense of loyalty and kinship – all based around the beautiful game.

“If you know how to play football and enjoy football, you can go anywhere in the world and find the people who feel exactly the same,” Simons.

China ClubFootball’s methods yielded quick rewards, with the league growing year after year. Today, the group trains some 3,000 children, many of whom are aspiring to emulate their heroes.

In order to ensure quality of training, the league employs European coaches, chiefly from England. Simons believes that the English coaching style is very different from the traditional Chinese approach, given that it focusses more on an individual enjoying the game first before stressing about specific skills.

Another interesting aspect of China ClubFootball is that it has found a way to tap into the desire of Chinese parents and children to hone their English skills.

Simons’ “soccer + English” training program has worked wonders, with parents rushing in, in the hope that the program will help their kids keep fit while improving their language skills.

While programs like that have helped expand the revenue stream, what Simons is really excited about is the plan put forward by the Chinese government to revamp how the sport is administered in the country.

Simons feels that the football reform plan proposed by President Xi Jinping is a “historic document” that could lead to major changes in the country, and create new growth prospects for organizations like China ClubFootball.