TRANMERE Rovers aim to forge sporting links with China by taking part in a joint venture with one of the country's biggest schools.

The club has agreed to help Little London - the largest English language school in Inner Mongolia - establish itself as a football playing school.

As part of the scheme, Chinese children will attend residential soccer camps at Prenton Park, where they will get football coaching and English language tuition.

The club will recruit people from England to work on paid contracts in Hohhot, teaching basic English language skills or football coaching.

The initial idea for the project came from Rovers' fan Robbie Bigland, who returned to Wirral after 12 years teaching at the Little London School in Hohhot, which has 10,000 pupils.

China is a country described as football mad, but still at an early stage in the development of its own players.

In an attempt to put this right, President Xi Jinping has declared football a compulsory part of the national school curriculum, with children now required to do an hour of the sport a week.

Approximately 20,000 football-themed schools are due to open by next year, 50,000 by 2025, with the goal of producing more than 100,000 players.

Rovers chairman Mark Palios said: "As Tranmere is one of the longest established professional clubs in the country and with a reputation for developing young talent, we are delighted to be able to do our bit to help Little London get its children playing the beautiful game.

"The soccer camps will generate much needed revenue for the club and the chance to live and work in China on the placement scheme will be a great opportunity for some of the graduates of our Sports BTEC courses and the many coaches who work with the club in different capacities."

Nicola Palios said: "We are hoping that this initiative will help us to build links with the local Chinese community in Merseyside.

"There are roughly 90,000 Chinese students in UK universities – many in Merseyside – but few professional football clubs have done much to engage them, partly because the traditional UK social media platforms on which UK football clubs rely are not widely used by the Chinese community.

"We are launching an official Tranmere Rovers page on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook, which will provide match reports and information on Tranmere, as well as promoting the opportunities we have for students to work in China through this initiative."

For more details contact Robbie Bigland at robbieb@tranmererovers.co.uk