China's Wuhan nominates for city women's football

Wuhan, one of China's pioneering Vision Asia cities, has expressed its keen interest in developing women's football. With Wuhan being one of the host cities for the FIFA Women's World Cup in September, and the Chinese Football Association nominating the city as a women's football designated cities, the time is ripe for kickstarting the development of women's football. An AFC team recently travelled to Wuhan to assess the current state of women's football and meetings with the Wuhan Football Association (WFA), City Education and Sports Bureaux gave a good insight into the level of commitment the city has for the women's game.

The AFC team discussed five key areas of football development - administration, clubs and competitions, coach education, referee education and grassroots and youth, the AFC website reported.

Discussions with the WFA, who already have a women's committee and a women's department in place, revolved around the present competition formats and ways to develop them further with the incorporation of clubs for women's senior and youth teams. The Jiang Han University Football Club also came forward with its full support by offering to discuss the possibility of hosting Female Coach and Referee Education Courses on their campus.