China beach soccer gains increasing popularity

As the founding of beach soccer national team, China beach soccer has gained increasing popularity and improved international competitive level in latest years, said Geng Zhiwei, the sole FIFA beach soccer referee instructor in China.

The 2nd National Desert Sports Meeting is being held in Zhongwei city of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from Tuesday to Thursday, among all matches beach soccer becomes most players' favorite.

According to the organizing committee, over 100 players from 14 provinces and regions and sports associations competed in the beach soccer matches.

"It's obvious that more and more people are interested in the sport and wants to know more about it," Geng said.

It's the first time for most players to try beach soccer. Influenced by the rules and skills of the traditional football, they are not easy to adapt to the sand and apply the new rules flexibly.

Player Zhang Tao said that it's more tiring to run in the sand and he just can't control the moving route of the ball.

As one of three big international matches of FIFA, beach soccer started in 2006 in China when beach soccer national team was organized formally. After that, the Chinese Football Association attaches more attention to promoting the sport and improving players' skill, which leading the national team once a good place in Asia.

However, beach soccer is not so well known as beach volleyball among people, as "many football lovers don't have opportunities to close to it because of the field or other reasons," said a football coach from Liaoning Province, adding that most still treat it as a kind of fan sport instead of competing sport.

Until now there is no professional league match for beach soccer in China, Geng said.

Beach soccer is suitable for both professional and football lovers, so it should be promoted to more people; moreover, domestic professional league needs to be held in order to make China team a better place in international events, some players and football coaches said.