The Chinese Football Association (CFA) was established in Beijing on January 3, 1955. It is the sole organization that manages the sport of football on a national scale. It consists of local football associations in each province, autonomous region and major municipalities in China, amateur football associations of different professionals, and football associations under the People's Liberation Army.

The CFA is a national non-governmental, nonprofit organization. It is a member of the All-China Sports Federation. As an Olympic event organization recognized by the Chinese Olympic Committee, the CFA is the only legal organization that represents China in FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and in the AFC (Asian Football Confederation).

Major tasks of the Association are:

* to work out strategies in developing Chinese football;

* to increase public participation in the sport;

* to promote exchanges and friendships with FIFA, AFC, and foreign football associations and players;

* to work out training plan for future football players;

* to organize training and activities of the national football team;

* to work out and approve systems, rules and disciplines of football games in China;

* to assist organizing national and international football games;

* to hold training courses for coaches, judges and players, and organize exams and evaluation on the coaches and judges;

* to select teams and players to participating international games;

* to approve judges on the national level, and report international judges to the FIFA.

Under the CFA there are the General Office, the Foreign Exchanges Department, the Professional Department, the Amateur Department, the Development Department, the National Team Management Department, the Legal Consultant Committee, the League Affairs Committee, the Publicity Committee and the Discipline Committee.