Football, basketball, volleyball top priorities among China's sports development

The head directors of Sports Administrations from around China gathered in Beijing on Monday.

The head directors of Sports Administrations from around China gathered in Beijing on Monday. Liu Peng, director of the State General Administration of Sport looked back on China's development in 2014, and also pledged to focus more on football, basketball and volleyball next year.

China did not perform well in these three sports in 2014, as the men's football team failed to make it to the quarterfinals of the Incheon Asian Games, and the Under 19 team also suffered a bad season. While the men's basketball team did not even make it to the World Cup, they finished fourth place in the Asian Cup, and fifth place in the Asian Games, one of their worst results ever.

It was a little better on the women's side, as the football team managed third place in the Asian Cup, and booked a place in the women's World Cup which will be held in Canada next year. The basketball team finished in sixth place at the World Championship, their best result in the past 12 years, while the volleyball team took the silver at the World Championship. Liu said China will put more effort on the development of the three sports in the upcoming year.

" We must put on more effort on the development of football, basketball and volleyball, and our goals will not be achieved in a short period of time. We must face the existing problems within these sports, and at the same time deal with new problems arising from the development process," Liu says.