China fans set to embrace US game

China's first arena football league to kick off during holidays

When two of the National Football League's most successful quarterbacks are in town, history is meant to be made.

Super Bowl winning players Peyton Manning and Ron Jaworski both touched down in Beijing on Thursday to promote professional American football - the NFL and AFL, respectively.

And history will be in the making during the National Day holiday when the China Arena Football League gets under way at Beijing's LeSports Center.

Whoever makes the first touchdown, whether he is Chinese or American, he's sure to go into the history books as Guangzhou Power takes on Qingdao Clipper in an afternoon match and Dalian Dragon Kings go up against Shenzhen Naja in a night match on Oct 1.

On the following day, Clint Dolezel, having coached Philadelphia Soul to its second straight Arena Bowl championships in August in Arizona, will embark on his mission of winning his second championship title in three months when he leads the Beijing Lions against the Shanghai Skywalkers at the same venue.

The six competing teams will play one game each weekend in the Super Series. The host teams in Beijing and Shanghai will be joined by franchises from Dalian, Qingdao, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. The championship winner will be decided in the first weekend of November in a title game called The China Bowl.

"It's the most exciting time of my life," said Martin Judge, CAFL founder and AFL's Philadelphia Soul owner, who four years ago brought the game to China. "China is ready for American football. It's coming to China, and it's happening and it's going to be big."

"For me it's a dream come true," added an excited Judge, who expects his organization to have 22 competing franchises when he and his team celebrate the fifth anniversary of the game in China.

And he's got a great partner - Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jaworski, formerly of the Philadelphia Eagles, is one of the most popular and knowledgeable ESPN analysts covering the NFL today.

"How cool it is!" Jaworski exclaimed at a meet-the-media event on Thursday in Beijing.

He said he and Judge made the decision four years and a month ago to bring arena football to China, "because American football teaches you teamwork, camaraderie and toughness".

American football has gone from being played only at China's sports universities to commanding landmark sporting arenas in the six host cities for this year's league.

A total of 132 US and Chinese players are registered for the competition, 60 of whom are professionals from the North American Arena Football League. The Chinese players underwent 20 arduous rounds of testing in Beijing, Shanghai and Philadelphia before being passed fit to play.

The most important growth factor for the CAFL is that each of its professional teams is comprised of an equal number of Chinese and foreign players.

Each team has 20 players, 10 Chinese and 10 Americans, and on the field, there must be four Chinese and four American players at all times.

Though most of the work on the field will be taken care of by the US players, coach Dolezel was surprised by the Chinese players after only two weeks of working together.

"It's amazing the Chinese players have picked up the game of American football," said Dolezel, admitting that communication, mainly translation, will play a key role, whether on the offensive line or the defensive line.

Zhong Guowei, a senior official from the China Rugby Football Association, said American football has been promoted with great success in the past few years, especially with the hosting of the university league for two years in 2014 and 2015.

"This league, starting on Oct 1, will surely lay a solid foundation for the full professional league in the near future," Zhong added.

Three years ago, the AFL's East-West All-Star Game was held in Beijing and was played in front of a packed Capital Gymnasium.

That's why Judge is confident that there will be great interest from a public who grew up watching soccer and basketball.

"Years ago, when soccer came to the US, not many of us knew the game, but today the American players are winning at the World Cup and the Olympics. This same thing is happening in China with American pro football. This is meant to be a revolution," Judge said.