95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Exercise Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1557875
This article is part of the Research Topic Sports Policy and Management in the Era of Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities View all 9 articles
Involution and Governance Reform in Professional Football Club-School Integration: A Case Study of S City's Youth Training Base
Provisionally accepted- 1 Huangshan University, Huangshan, China
- 2 Zhejiang Financial School, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
The integrated development of Chinese professional football clubs and campus football has achieved good development. However, there are still many problems in terms of training methods and depth of integration. This article uses the involution theory (a developmental paradox where increased partnership networks fail to improve training outcomes) as an analytical perspective to explain the inner part of the case. This study identifies an involution dilemma in football club-school integration, characterized by overemphasis on quantitative expansion (increasing partner schools across provinces) and underinvestment in training quality (neglecting youth base development). The findings reveal a systemic "growth without development" pattern, where scaling partnerships fails to enhance talent outputs. The specific causes of the involution dilemma are detailedly stated in this manuscript. Based on this, the research proposes specific corrective strategies to solve these issues.
Keywords: Professional football club, Campus Football, football reserve talents, Integration of sports and education, youth football training base
Received: 09 Jan 2025; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhu, Zhang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Lin Wang, Huangshan University, Huangshan, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.