Funding shortfall stops soccer girls reaching goals

Development of the women's game is hampered by poor organization and low public awareness. Christine Low reports.

Wearing her hair in a tight bun secured by a flowery elastic hair tie, 7-year-old Zhao Fangyu ran around the training field at the Sunrise Football Academy with razor-sharp focus during a practice game. Despite being the slightest and shortest of her peers, Fangyu ran as fast as the others, while keeping her eyes on the ball.

What set her apart was not just her small physical build, but the fact that she was the only girl at the session. She is one of just two girls in her age group attending training at the academy, and, as the game is still a largely male-dominated sport, women and girls are exceptions on China's soccer fields.

However, the country's 2016 blueprint to become a soccer powerhouse has led to companies pledging donations and support for teams of all sizes at different levels and leagues.

In July, female soccer in China gained a boost in its public standing when Alipay announced a 1 billion yuan ($141 million) donation to support the girls' and women's game over the next 10 years. The move raised questions about whether large donations can give women's soccer a much-needed boost to improve its global standing and help change perceptions of the players.

Though Fangyu displays a fierce passion on the field, the little girl is shy and reserved off it. When asked about her love for the game, she spoke in a soft voice and answered in short sentences. Last year, she became enamored with soccer while playing it with classmates at school.

Her father, Zhao Taihui, said his daughter chose soccer as an extracurricular activity when she was in first grade.

"At the beginning, her mother asked her 'Why do you like soccer?' At the time, she did not know what soccer was, she just liked to run around," he said. "She told her mother that she liked to run around. It was probably after she had played soccer for some time that she liked it more and more."

Young girls like Fangyu are part of a new generation working to achieve China's soccer dream. The country hopes to reclaim its ranking as one of the world's top female teams by 2050, after the national team ranked 16 at the end of this year's FIFA Women's World Cup.