New Value, New Thought and New Path of China Youth Football League

On April 27, 2020, the General Administration of Sports and the Ministry of Education jointly issued the “Opinions on Deepening the Integration of Sports and Education to Promote the Healthy Development of Adolescents,” proposing the principle of “integrated design and integrated promotion” of sports and education. Competitions will be organized and formulated by both educational and sports departments. On June 1, 2022, the “China Youth Football League Competition Organization Work Plan(2022-2024)” and “China Youth Football League Competition Work Plan” were officially released, marking the official opening of the China Youth Football League and a solid step forward in competition integration. Using the methods of literature collection, expert interviews and comparative analysis, the study analyzes the new era of the China Youth Football League from the three themes of “new value,” “new thought,” and “new paths”. According to the findings, competition is shaping the paradigm of integrated competition and collaborative education. The reshaping of the training system provides an opportunity to empower the high-quality development of school sports in the new era; further consideration is needed in terms of integration motivation, the capital structure of the competition field, and practice habits. Therefore, it is proposed to achieve coordination and co-governance through clarification of responsibilities, powers and rights, departmental linkage, technology-driven and inclusive evaluation, “six-in-one”competition culture accumulation, economic and social capital entry, symbolic capital return, habitual adjustment, and transformation to achieve a healthy developmental ecology.