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Chinese University Football League Inaugurated
Inaugural Chinese University Football League (CUFL) opened Saturday at Beijing University of Science and Engineering.
Beijing University of Science and Engineering beat People's University of China 3-0 in a friendly match after the opening ceremony.
CUFL, organized by University Sports Association of China (CUSA), features the first national collegiate soccer tournament and has enrolled around 200 teams from all the 31 Chinese provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions as well as China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region.
Teams will first compete within each provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions and special administrative regions) with the elites cruising into the next stage. The lucky birds are to be divided into four conferences (North I, North II, South I, South II) according to their origins for second stage matches and top two finishers from each conference will earn the berths in the finals in June, 2001.
"We intend to develop the tournament into an annual event and try our best to make it as successful as Chinese University Basketball Association (CUBA)," Yang Liguo, CUSA Secretary General and Director General of CUFL organizing Committee, told Xinhua.
CUBA, originated from 1998, has arisen great interest of Chinese college students and enjoys large popularity among them.
Yang said :"We also want to boost the sport in Chinese universities and hope CUFL could become the cradle of talent players even Chinese internationals."
Twenty-one universities, including Beijing University and Qinghua University, will begin first round matches of Beijing Region on Sunday.
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