China’s Xi Makes Soccer Supremacy Focus of Top-Level Party Panel

The economy, cybersecurity and the military are among the few matters Chinese President Xi Jinping has deemed important enough to create a top-level Communist Party task force. Add soccer to the list.

Achieving Chinese supremacy on the football pitch is the latest mission Xi has assigned to a “leading small group,” the Guangzhou-based Soccer News reported Thursday. The panel will be led by Vice Premier Liu Yandong, the first time a Politburo member has been put in charge of developing a sport.