China's Olympic soccer team is racing to get in shape to prepare for the Toulon Cup in May, according to Chinese Football Association (CFA) officials.

China's U-17 national soccer team coach Jia Xiuquan will take the job as interim manager of the team to compete in the 2008 Beijing Games.

The CFA's sudden decision, ending long-standing ambivalence about team plans, can be explained by an incident a few days ago when an official from the General Administration of Sport (GAS), China's top sports governing body, censured CFA for its sluggish actions on setting up the team.

"Where is the team? How many games have they played so far?" Cun Dalin, assistant to the head of GAS, demanded of the CFA leading panel at a meeting on Olympic Game's preparations.

Men's football was said to be among the last few sports sectors which still do not have a concrete plans for the 2008 games.

In response to GAS demands, CFA officials called a meeting on Sunday and decided to set up the team right away, after long and futile deliberations.

Jia Xiuquan, who led China's U-17 team to victory at a tournament this January in South Africa, was appointed as coach. They had little other choice as selecting and evaluating foreign coaches takes at least one month.

The rare clear-cut victory of the Chinese men's team against powerhouses like Cameroon, Senegal and Nigeria earned Jia the respect of CFA. But that does not mean the 1988 Asian Footballer of the Year will have an easy time to begin with. The length of his tenure will depend on the outcome of the Toulon Cup.

The Toulon Cup, kicking off on May 16 this year, sees China up against with Argentina, the Czech Republic and Portugal in Group B.

China chalked up their best record in the biennial tournament in 2004, beating Brazil 1-0 for third place.

Time might prove to be a big headache for Jia's side as China's national league soccer must carry on and the hastily called-up team face a busy month in April with a tournament in Portugal and a friendly against rivals Japan.

(China Daily April 5, 2006)