Grassroots soccer hits fever pitch in 'wild stadium'
Success of invitational event in Yongzhou city typifies growing nationwide popularity of leagues
By Li Muyun and He Chun in Changsha |
China Daily |
Updated: 2026-02-24 07:15
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Brick debris and building materials littered parts of the stadium, vegetation grew head-high and there were online jokes that "snakes might crawl out from under the seats", a reference to Yongzhou's reputation for having a large reptile population.
Come late January all that had changed when Yongzhou hosted the inaugural CMG Mass Football Invitational Tournament — or Yangchao — in its modernized stadium. The seven-day event from Jan 18 to Jan 24, organized by the China Media Group and the Yongzhou government, brought together grassroots soccer teams from six provincial-level regions — Hunan, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Guangdong and Qinghai.
