Beckham begins China football envoy role 20 March 2013 Last updated at 09:29 David Beckham is in Beijing to begin his new role as a special ambassador for Chinese football. It will involve attending league matches in China and visiting clubs to help promote the game to children. His appointment, announced earlier this month, comes as Chinese football works to recover from a match-fixing scandal that saw dozens of top officials, players and referees jailed or banned. Beckham, 37, will combine the role with playing for Paris St-Germain. "I am helping in the education for young kids and young aspiring footballers," he said in a press conference. As David Beckham's one-man global "brandwagon" rolled into Beijing, he was greeted by a respectful but not overwhelming-sized crowd of screamers. On his first stop, the immaculately coiffured star stood in a school auditorium and told a group of children that he was proud to be involved in the development of football in China. But so multiple are the problems that many sports fans here will wonder just how much a sprinkling of the Beckham magic can really achieve. Akin perhaps to appointing a well-known perfumer as global ambassador for a sewage works. "I'm not a politician so anything that has gone on in the past has nothing to do with me," Beckham said in reply to a BBC question. It's a lot for one Englishman to fix. I am not here to clear up anything. I am here to educate the children and give them a chance of becoming professional footballers. But, says the BBC's John Sudworth, he has his work cut out. In a nation of 1.3 billion people some estimates suggest that fewer than 100,000 youths play any form of organised football. In terms of television viewers China has plenty of fans, but many prefer to watch foreign games over the tarnished domestic league, our correspondent adds. In February, China's football association banned 33 players and officials for life after a three-year probe into match-fixing. Two ex-heads of the football league were also jailed in June 2012 for corruption, four months after the country's top referee, Lu Jun, was imprisoned for taking money to influence games. The Chinese national team has also failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. Beckham's four-day visit will include training sessions with primary schoolchildren and visits to football clubs in Beijing, Qingdao and Wuhan. The former England captain, one of the most globally recognised names in football, has won a league championship at all three of the clubs he has played for on a permanent basis - Manchester United, Real Madrid and LA Galaxy.