Chinese soccer kicks off new era

The Chinese Football Association has elected Chen Xuyuan, former president of the Shanghai International Port Group, its sixth president. Three vice-presidents and a new 35-member executive committee were also elected in Xianghe, Hebei province, on Thursday.

This is the first time since it was established in 1955 that the CFA will not be headed by an official of the General Administration of Sport of China. Also, most of the members of the executive committee are not sports officials, but professionals coming from different walks of life related to soccer.

The composition of the committee demonstrates the sports authority has finally decided to pull back its hands from the soccer organization, as presumably it has realized that the former outdated and rigid management of the sport, along with corruption, is partly to blame for the disappointing performance of Chinese football. It has also realized that to have quick success, some shortsighted measures were adopted. For instance, under the former committee's acquiescence, large amounts of money were spent employing expensive foreign players and coaches, but not on youth training.