BEIJING, June 19-- The European Union on Friday expressed the willingness to help China boost its soccer competitive abilities.

"If China is interested in cooperating in coaches and referees' exchanging, we are looking forward to do this soon," said Hans-Dietmar Schweisgut, EU Ambassador to China, at a conference featuring "Sport and Education: EU and China Perspective", which was held here Friday.

"We think soccer is a great sport and I am glad to see China's initiatives on soccer," Schweisgut told Xinhua.

As an activity held to mark the 40th anniversary of China-EU diplomatic ties, Wang Dengfeng, Director of Department of Physical, Health and Arts Education of Ministry of Education of China, introduced the Chinese football reform to the EU diplomats.

"China will build more than 20 thousands football-oriented school till the year 2020, and We will have over 50 millions children who get basic football skills since then," Wang said.

"But we don't have enough football coaches in China, and we can offer thousands of jobs for European coaches in the future," he added.

The diplomats from Hungary, Austria and Luxembourg all expressed the hope to make contributions to China's soccer reform.

Luxembourg intends to send a youth soccer team to Dalian in order to boost China-EU's relationship.

Liu Zheng, an official from China's Department of Physical, Health and Arts Education of Ministry of Education, said: "China will 'import' 120 foreign first coaches in 2015, and they will work for 10 months in various provinces of China," Liu said.