Fuping County, China —
Soccer players in red jerseys jump and spray champagne on cheering teammates, confetti and streamers flow around them and the crowd’s jubilation is captured on mobile phones.
This was not Spain’s World Cup victory clinched in New Jersey on Sunday, but one celebrated the day before in a stadium lined with Communist Party slogans in Fuping county, in the mountains and countryside of northern China’s Hebei province.
The match is one of many to be played across the country, with teams competing for a spot in the national Village Super League finals. The amateur tournament has become a phenomenon in China, attracting millions of spectators from across the country and providing a colorful alternative to the World Cup, which the Chinese men’s national team has not competed in for more than 20 years.
Dong Zehao, a dentist turned Baoding Lianchi defender, told CNN ahead of the match against hometown contender Fuping Luotawan Village. “Before the Village Super League, there was no other high-profile (local) tournament.”
The format has expanded from a single rural league in one of China’s poorest provinces to include around 60 leagues and hundreds of teams in rural towns and small cities across the country.
The idea is simple. Everyday men with regular day jobs form teams, compete in local leagues for a chance to play in the national championship, and gather fans for carnival-like events throughout the season.
Local government officials have played a key role in regulating the rise in competition, aiming to support businesses in a domestic economy suffering from weak consumer spending.
But the Village Super League has also emerged as an antidote to fans frustrated by years of deep corruption and mismanagement in professional football, which is widely seen as preventing the country of 1.4 billion from developing a men’s team capable of competing on the world stage.
“Our country didn’t qualify for the World Cup, so it’s more interesting to watch local soccer (Fuping County),” said Liu Jiaping, a 21-year-old university student who is a professed fan of World Cup star Kylian Mbappé.
“When you come here, you get to experience soccer in this country. It’s much better than sitting at home on your phone,” she said from the stands with her aunt and sister, covered with cardboard scraps, in the dry July heat.
On Saturday night, thousands of spectators filled the stands of the local vocational school stadium for the Fuping County League final. It was a major event for the prefecture, which has a population of about 200,000 people and is better known for growing fruit and nuts than for hosting sporting events.
A 20-year-old woman who was attending with her boyfriend joked that “probably half of Fuping County is here” and said she was just there to “join the excitement.”
A procession of horseback riders began the game’s opening parade, followed by a group of colorful performers carrying fans. Local businesses represent their own businesses. A dance troupe of farmers and workers using tools and boxes of local apples, dates and chestnuts.
Hundreds of local children took part in a carefully choreographed opening ceremony and halftime show, celebrating the county’s revolutionary history that draws tourists to the area.
Outside the stadium gates, a night market was held exclusively on match days, with dozens of stalls selling barbecue skewers, cold noodles, and sweets.
The spectacle made it clear to the organizers that the tournament was more than just a match, it was a platform to promote, inspire and encourage the county.
Once a remote area of extreme poverty, Fuping County has become a poster child for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s successful poverty reduction campaign over the past decade, and authorities remain keen to find ways to boost growth. (An oversized sign with the communist slogan “We Now Live the Good Life” held up during the parade emphasized that point.)
Schoolteacher Geng Yang, 32, who was participating as a cheerleader, said the games and exhibitions are “very important for the development of our Fuping.”
“These works represent everyone’s high spirits after we emerge from poverty, and allow more people to know about our hometown,” she said.
Cities and towns across China have promoted local events and niche industries in recent years to stimulate spending and draw tourists, a move that has taken on added urgency as many local government budgets are tied up in debt repayments.
More than 200,000 yuan (approximately $30,000) was spent on the opening game of the Fuping County League season in May, tournament officials told CNN.
For Liu Qian, who spent Saturday’s game frying sweet and sour pork behind a wok, opening at the Village Super League night market adds about 10,000 renminbi (about $1,500) to the day’s revenue for his downtown restaurant.
There were hardly any customers at agricultural stalls such as Wang Yinke Store.
The local government invited honey sellers to the market rent-free. Although the game helped draw attention to his brand, he said business for honey wasn’t as good as in previous years.
Both teams “give it their all on the field, ran as hard as they could and exemplified the purest love for the game,” the announcer blared over the loudspeaker as both teams ended the first half with the score 0-0.
For fans, seeing players such as university students, doctors, teachers, and office workers is part of the attraction, in contrast to the Chinese Super League.
At a time when the Chinese government announced plans to transform the country into a “soccer superpower,” major professional clubs such as Shanghai Port, now-disbanded Guangzhou Evergrande and Jiangsu Suning attracted elite foreign players with high salaries.
But years later, several top professional clubs collapsed due to financial mismanagement, dozens of soccer officials were suspended or jailed, and many teams were embroiled in anti-corruption campaigns. Meanwhile, the Chinese men’s team has not qualified for the World Cup since 2002.
The original Village Super League in Rongjiang County, a rural area in southwestern Guizhou province, took to the stage in 2023, capturing national attention with its simple love of the game and festival atmosphere, and sparking imitators across the country.
Launched last year, Rongjiang’s National Village Super League involves leagues from all over the country, with some leagues gaining large followings by live streaming their matches.
Now in its second year at Fuping, soccer fans hope that this type of match will help develop a new generation of players who will strengthen the national team.
“Spectators are moving from just enjoying soccer to understanding soccer and believing in soccer,” said Gao Zhang, organizer and referee manager of the Fuping County League.
Chemical engineering student Zhao Junjie, who said Saturday’s game was his first time participating in such an event, had similar thoughts.
“The whole country started playing this kind of (village league) soccer, and it’s creating a big wave and helping more people fall in love with the sport,” said Zhao, who himself grew up playing and following table tennis, China’s de facto official sport.
Near the end of the game, Baoding’s team could not stop their attacking momentum, and the home team took a 1-0 lead at the end of the second half.
As the home team took a victory lap and residents rushed onto the pitch to celebrate, Tong, a dentist in Baoding, felt heartbroken but was already thinking about next season.
“Winning and losing are part of the game. It’s normal and you can accept it,” he said. “I will come back and fight again next year.”
