QINGDAO’S football teams made significant progress in 2011. Apart from winning the national championship, three professional football teams including Xihai Club, Zhongneng Team and QUST team also hit new heights last year.

    Meanwhile, the clubs also built cooperation with football clubs in Brazil and South Korea and two coaches and five football players were sent out for two years of training in Portugal.

    The campus football program also developed well in 2011. Five coaching courses were offered and 170 coaches received professional training given by the city’s association of football.

    More than 450 students from 14 cities participated in a national football summer camp, which has provided an exchange platform for the city’s student football players. Several school coaches, principals, school clubs and student players were awarded at the camp.

    Meanwhile, the city’s residents held 391 football championships for amateur teams and more than 2,100 football lovers joined in the events.

    The city’s association of football will cooperate more with the education department to promote campus football programs this year, letting more young people know and learn about football.

    More school coaches will be trained and the city will apply to host the national football summer camp this year to introduce Qingdao to football lovers, said Gong Chengli, director of the city’s sports bureau. The association will also help make Qingdao “a city of football.”

    (Wang Yuanyuan,  Liu Changzhou)