Teams in the Jiangsu Football City League, an increasingly popular amateur football competition in east China's Jiangsu province, are preparing for some key matches over the coming weekend.
Dubbed "Su Super League," the amateur tournament features 13 teams - each representing a city in Jiangsu Province. The league has captured the collective imagination of the region, with matches attracting around 195,700 live spectators so far this season, and online viewership soaring into the hundreds of millions. Attendance at matches sometimes surpasses that in some established professional leagues.
The Wuxi City team, whose players include university and high school students, and staff from an aerospace research institute, have been training hard every night this week.
"After more than two months of playing football together, we have gotten along very well and become a real team," said Cai Mingzhe, a Wuxi player, who is also an engineer at Jiangsu Jiangnan Water Utilities.
"The match against Changzhou on June 15 is particularly crucial. Previously we practiced two or three times one week. This week we have been training every day," said Xie Naijiong, a Wuxi player who is currently a student at Nanjing Normal University.
Despite their different ages and professions, the coach of the team is happy how his players have gelled.
"I think the key is how to improve team cohesion, because after all, it is not a professional team, and people just come together temporarily. We'll try to perform well in the game on June 15," said Tang Jing, Wuxi’s head coach.
The Nanjing City team is also busy preparing for a key match this Saturday with its 30-man squad, which includes retired athletes, youth training coaches and college students, training intensively.
"We the Nanjing team want to play more matches and achieve better results," said Ge Wei, a Nanjing player.
Crunch matches ahead in China’s popular amateur football league
