The Chinese Football Association has announced plans to make China a "world football superpower" by 2050 with significant investment into the sport.
The strategy calls for 70,000 pitches and 20,000 training centres to be in place by 2020, according to BBC Sport, with a target of 50 million of the country's 1.4 billion children and adults playing the game by the end of the decade.
The medium-term target calls for one football pitch for every 10,000 people - or 136,000 football pitches - by the year 2030, alongside the ambition for the men's team to rise from 81st in the FIFA rankings to one of the best in Asia.
The Chinese Super League has caused waves across the world football in recent transfer windows with its huge spending to attract star names. In the January transfer window, clubs spent around £250m to bring in players such as Alex Teixeira and Jackson Martinez, more than the Premier League's £190m of spending and more than the combined spending in the previous five Chinese Super League transfer windows.
Neil Wilkes
