International youth football competition to take place in Xiamen

The 2018 Xiamen International Youth Football Invitational, as well as the Youth Football Culture Summer Camp, will take place in Xiamen from July 26 to August 3.

The nine-day event, which was first held in Xiamen in 2016, aims to improve the quality of the city’s campus football as well as promote exchanges between Xiamen and its sister cities.

The invitational will be held from July 28 to August 1. During that time, eight teams of students aged 16 and coming from four different countries will play a total of 20 matches.

Three of the teams are from Trier, Germany, Sunshine Coast, Australia, and Busan, South Korea, two of which are Xiamen’s sister cities.

“The event will be a symbol of international exchanges as well as cooperation of campus football culture and education for the rest of the world,” said Lin Jiatian, head of the organizing committee, at a media briefing on Tuesday.

From August 2 to 3, a series of football and culture-related activities will also be organized in the city.

The event is co-hosted by the Xiamen Municipal Education Bureau, the  the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Xiamen Municipal Government and the Xiamen People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.