240 Chinese Football Coaches Visit France To Study The French Game

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese government agreed to a Franco-Chinese football coach training program that began in September and will end Dec. 9, according to Didier Arnaud of LIBERATION. Since Sept. 15, there have been “240 Chinese football coaches in France studying the game from French coaches around the country.” The coaches traveled to France to “perfect the art of coaching football.” Most of them are “high school and college professors, and physical education teachers.” Six hours a day they alternate between “training on the pitch and classes on theory (history of the game, strategy systems and teaching methods of coaching).” Regional Dir of the French University Sport Federation Thomas Fondeur said, “It was a request on China's part to study the French coaching method” (LIBERATION, 12/7).