Guest post by Wang Hailong

Wang Hailong is a football blogger from Beijing, China. He found out about the book Football English through the media coverage it received when Chelsea’s Antonio Conte was pictured reading it on the beach.

Click here for his football for English blog for Mandarin speakers.

In this Guest post, Hailong gives us news from China’s top divisions.

In December 2018, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) stipulated that it would continue to carry out its current U23 policy in 2018, which it launched in 2017. In addition in 2018, the number of domestic U23 players (born after 1 January 1995) per match should be not less than the number of foreign players, encouraging more domestic young players to be given playing time.

For every Chinese Super League side, the number of foreign players who are actually used in play on the pitch should be three at most. And that number drops to two for every China League One side in 2018.

The CFA rolled out its U23 policy in January 2017, stating that there must be at least one domestic U23 player (born after 1 January 1994) in the starting XI for every Chinese Super League side, and every China League One side.

In June 2017, the CFA stipulated that the fee for a foreign import should not exceed RMB 45 million (GBP 5.12 million) and for domestic players RMB 20 million (GBP 2.28 million). If a club does exceed this amount, and for example, it pays  GBP 6 million for a Brazilian player, then the club has to pay an equivalent  GBP 6 million to the CFA. This money will be used for football development and education across China. The CFA confirmed that this stipulation would continue to apply in 2018.

There are three professional leagues in China. The top league is the Chinese Super League, followed by China League One, and then China League Two.

Unlike the Premier League season, which lasts from August to May, the Chinese Super League season starts in March and finishes in November.

China League One is from March to October. China League Two runs from April to November.

After Chelsea manager Antonio Conte was spotted reading Football English on holiday, the Guardian spoke to author Tom Challenger about his vocabulary book, which he wrote to help learners of English communicate about the game.

You can read the article here.

On 4 September 2017 pictures of Chelsea manager Antonio Conte reading the book Football English appeared in British newspapers.

The radio station TalkSPORT spoke to the author Tom Challenger about his book.

Listen to the interview here:

Antonio Conte took the opportunity to have a short beach holiday while the English Premier League broke for a weekend of international matches at the beginning of the 2017/18 season.

On 3 September 2017 he was photographed reading Football English by Tom Challenger on the beach in Italy.

The photos featured in this article in The Sun newspaper on 4 September.

Football English is for learners of English who want to learn vocabulary and phrases that will help them to talk about and read about football (soccer).