by sportswriters Wei Hua, Yue Dongxing and Gong Bing
BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- FIFA's Chief Football Officer Jill Ellis said a strong domestic league and a successful national team must work "hand in hand" if China is to return to the top level of women's football.
Ellis, who led the United States to back-to-back Women's World Cup titles in 2015 and 2019, recently visited China as part of a FIFA delegation and shared her views with Xinhua on youth development, overseas experience and the future of the women's game.
After stepping down as U.S. coach, Ellis became president of National Women's Soccer League club San Diego Wave FC, a role she said gave her a broader understanding of the relationship between clubs and national teams.
For Ellis, clubs must recognize that their work extends beyond domestic competition, while national team success can in turn raise the profile of the league and inspire more young players to take up the sport.
"If a national team wants to be successful at the top level and win world championships, you have to have a very strong domestic league. The two are hand in hand. When we won the World Cup in 2019, the league attendance and the participation numbers went through the roof. So if the national team does very well, it's a natural stimulant to the leagues and the young girls," she said.
"The clubs also have to recognize that their job is to make sure they are developing players that aren't just competing in their club, but they're ready to compete on the world stage. And we've got to create that relationship and understand how you do that."
During the visit, Ellis met club officials and other figures involved in Chinese football as FIFA continues efforts to strengthen standards and professional structures in the women's game globally.
"I really wanted to speak to the leadership of the clubs to understand what their development pipeline looks like, what a regular training environment looks like for players, what the proficiency of the coaches and the licensing is," she said. "So it was a really great opportunity for me to ask a lot of questions. What we want to do at FIFA is to create a club licensing program. When you have minimum standards, you ask clubs to meet those standards."
She added: "When I was the president of the San Diego Wave, the league implemented minimum standards so that there's an expectation set. The minimum standard could be a required team physician to take care of the players or every player has a professional contract."
China women's football was once among the world's leading forces, finishing runner-up at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 1996 Olympic Games, but the team has struggled to maintain that level in recent years as investment and participation have surged elsewhere, particularly in Europe.
Ellis said some Chinese clubs already possess impressive infrastructure and resources, but stressed the importance of competitiveness throughout the league and a wider talent pool.
"Where and how are they identifying players? How are they training players? Where are they finding players? These were a lot of the questions we posed. One of my biggest takeaways, if I'm candid, is that I don't think there's enough young girls playing football in China. If you compare yourself to other top countries, they have a much smaller population, but a much higher percentage of registered players. And I was very surprised at how small that number is in China," she said.
Ellis said China has committed people, passionate coaches and strong facilities, but needs greater alignment between clubs and the national setup.
"Having more of a strategic, common goal in terms of how we want to build and grow this, building a better connection between the national teams and the clubs and how they all fit together," she said.
The 59-year-old added that FIFA shares the Chinese Football Association's ambition of restoring China as a regular contender for major honors.
"As a former coach, I just remember such a great history between the U.S. and China, great matches and legendary players. The global women's football needs China to be back in a leadership position. We're passionate about trying to support, guide, facilitate any way we can help this process."
Ellis also highlighted the importance of international exposure, both through attracting overseas players into the domestic league and encouraging Chinese players to compete abroad.
"If a Chinese player goes to a top league, we've got to make sure they're not sitting on the bench, they've got to be good enough to be in the lineup. That's the gap. Right now, I think some of the Chinese players could get into the lineup, but a lot of them right now would be sitting behind the European players. That's a gap that we can address and look at how we close that."
Turning to the expanded 48-team men's 2026 FIFA World Cup, Ellis rejected suggestions that the tournament's quality would decline because of the larger field.
"I heard that same argument for the women's tournament in 2023. It expanded to 32 teams, and everybody said you're going to have really lopsided matches of little interest, but it was the most competitive World Cup ever. The debutants did very well," she said.
"So for the men's World Cup, do I think they'll be competitive games? Yes. If we look at the success of some teams in Qatar in 2022, some of those were non-traditional teams that you didn't think of as giants, and suddenly they're doing very well," she added. "The overall landscape, what I expect is a very competitive World Cup, I think there will be some surprises." ■
