The 2025 Jiangsu Football City League has recently surged in popularity, highlighting the intense rivalries among the 13 cities in Jiangsu Province of China.
Passion across the Province
The league’s motto, “Fighting for city honor”, has drawn ordinary citizens into stadiums, igniting a passion for sports across Jiangsu’s cities. The scarcity of tickets and heated discussions on social media have added to the excitement, with the Douyin hashtag # JiangsuCityLeague # surpassing 100 million views.
A total of 516 players from the 13 teams have qualified, player ages range from 16 to 40. It is an amateur league, with players including students, teachers, couriers, and programmers.
Despite its amateur status, the Jiangsu City League has rivalled professional Chinese football leagues in popularity.
This weekend, the third round of the league will kick off, with 22,198 fans flocking to the Xuzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium. Tickets for the match between Nanjing and Wuxi sold out quickly, leading scalpers to inflate prices from 80 yuan to 600 yuan, compared to the original price of 10 yuan. To encourage participation and audience engagement, matches are primarily scheduled on weekends, with one round per week.
The last team among the 13, Changzhou, has shown the humble and resilient side of soccer. With an average age of 28 — older than their opponents by four to five years — the team has endured three straight defeats. Coach Fan Yi remains undeterred.
“The players have given their all. The passion has earned them applause and admiration,” Fan said.
“The vitality of football lies in public participation and genuine passion. Only when more city-level leagues like this emerge can we truly foster a strong grassroots ecosystem for the development of football in China,” Luo Le, a sports scholar at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, said.
A Shared Sense of City Pride
Using playful slogans such as “The match comes first, friendship fourteenth,” and “No match-fixing, just long-standing rivalries,” the league is founded on the principle of mass participation and a shared sense of city pride.
The reason behind the league’s rapid rise lies in its ability to capture the essence of local identity, grassroots traditions, and the spirit of friendly rivalry among cities.
Each participating city has used the pitch as a stage to present its own unique local culture.
The Lianyungang team has turned its home matches into a seafood festival, while the Yangzhou team transforms halftime breaks into an intangible cultural heritage showcase. The clash between Huai’an and Yangzhou has turned into a “battle of cuisine” as both cities have famous culinary traditions.
While during a match between Changzhou and Yangzhou, Changzhou welcomed more than 60,000 tourists from Yangzhou. Many tourist attractions in Changzhou offered free admission to Yangzhou visitors, and restaurants extended hours and launched special fan packages.
The biggest highlight of this tournament is that it’s attracting the attention of people who normally wouldn’t follow football, Wang Xiaowan, vice president of the Jiangsu Football Association, said.
Written by Yetao Gu, additional reporting by China Daily and Global Times
If you liked this article why not read: The Grand Canal’s Journey: From Ancient Route to Global Icon
