Shanghai Students' Football Tournament Includes Overseas Participants This Year

As Shanghai's most popular amateur football competition for students, the 2026 Xinmin Evening News Students' Football Tournament has kicked off, involving new participants from overseas for the first time.

Running through August, the tournament has been divided into several regional zones. The Shanghai division has been upgraded this year to feature concurrent five-a-side and eight-a-side competitions.

A total of 554 teams have successfully registered, marking the highest participation in nearly a decade.

The standout teams emerging from the preliminaries will advance to the municipal finals in early August to compete for the championship.

Both the Shanghai division's five-a-side municipal final and the eight-a-side matches will be held at Qiantan Sports Park in the Pudong New Area.

To enhance cross-regional participation, this year's tournament has, for the first time, established a sub-event – the International Secondary School Football Tournament.

A total of 21 elite teams from 10 competition zones – Shanghai; Qidong in Jiangsu Province; Taizhou, Songyang and Jiashan in Zhejiang; Kashgar in Xinjiang; Shigatse in Xizang; Golog in Qinghai; China's Hong Kong; and Guinea in Africa – will take part, featuring three women's teams among them.

In late August, they will gather in Shanghai to exchange skills. The organizing committee will also arrange cultural experience activities for them, including city tours and friendship football events.

The Xinmin Evening News Students' Football Tournament was launched in 1986. Over more than four decades, the tournament has witnessed the football aspirations of generations of Shanghai's youth, and many current Shanghai and Chinese football legends have taken part in the competition.