The China League One (aka Chinese Jia League) is the second tier professional league for Chinese football clubs. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association. Above the League One is Chinese Super League.

Prior to the formation of Chinese Super League, Jia League was known as Jia B League. The then top two levels of Chinese football league were known as Jia A League and Jia B League respectively. Jia A was rebranded as CSL and Jia B was rebranded as the current Jia League in 2004. Below the Jia League is the Yi League, following the Chinese Heavenly Stems naming convention of numbers.

It is currently made up of 16 teams, playing each other home and away once. At the end of each season, the top two teams will be promoted to CSL and the two lowest placed teams from CSL will be relegated to the China League One. The top two teams from China League Two will be promoted and replace two lowest placed teams from China League One.

The Football Association of the People's Republic of China (Simplified Chinese: 中国足球协会; Traditional Chinese: 中國足球協會; pinyin: Zhōngguó Zúqiú Xiéhuì), or commonly known as the Chinese Football Association (CFA), is the governing body of football in the People's Republic of China. Original formed in Beijing during 1924 the association would affiliate itself with FIFA in 1931 before relocating to Taiwan following the end of Chinese Civil War (see Chinese Taipei Football Association). Re-established during 1955 in Beijing once again the CFA would not affiliate itself with any other major association until it joined the Asian Football Confederation in 1974 and then with FIFA once more in 1979. Since rejoining FIFA the CFA claims to be a non-governmental, nonprofit organization, but in fact CFA is a Department (as Management Center of Football ) of Chinese State General Administration of Sports.

The original China Football Association was founded in 1924. Affiliated to FIFA in 1931, it was relocated to Taiwan following the end of Chinese Civil War (see Chinese Taipei Football Association).

Football in China consists of Association football (Chinese: 足球; pinyin: zuqiu) as well as the China national football team. Football has been one of the most well supported sports in China, since it was introduced in the early 1900s. The national governing body is the Chinese Football Association (CFA). Hong Kong and Macau have separate leagues.

The professional league is marred by match-fixing, illegal betting, and violence on and off the pitch, which the Chinese government has said would take a long time to fix. In fact, many insiders including the two former CEO of the Football Association of China were arrested and prosecuted for gambling and fixing games. Registered players are also dwindled rapidly during the past years. In 1995, registered players reached its climax at 650,000 and were melt down to only about 7,000 in 2008.

On December 21, 2009, China was awarded FIFA's Development Award after successfully implementing a new nationwide grassroots football program.

The Men's National Team is ranked 77^th in the world, and Women's National Team is ranked 13th.

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. At the turn of the 21st century, the game was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries, making it the world's most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field of grass or green artificial turf, with a goal in the middle of each of the short ends. The object of the game is to score by driving the ball into the opposing goal.

In general play, the goalkeepers are the only players allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms (unless the ball is carried out of play, where the field players are required to re-start by a throw-in of the game ball), while the field players typically use their feet to kick the ball into position, occasionally using their torso or head to intercept a ball in midair. The team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is tied at the end of the game, either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time and/or a penalty shootout, depending on the format of the competition. The Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by the Football Association in 1863 and have evolved since then. Association football is governed internationally by FIFA - Fédération Internationale de Football Association (English: International Federation of Association Football), which organises the FIFA World Cup every four years.