China needs to ramp up its plans to build more 'fields of dreams'

A lack of soccer pitches could hold back China's plan to become a world power in the sport.

The country hopes to roll out 20,000 new pitches and training facilities by 2017 in a move to develop 100,000 new players, according to the Ministry of Education.

But problems finding available land are likely to make those goals difficult to achieve. "One of the main concerns about China's plan to develop soccer is the lack of training fields," Tristan Wang, a soccer analyst at advertising and marketing agency Oceans Sports & Entertainment Inc, said.