Source: Football Gazette
By Su Peng, Special Correspondent Probably no one would have thought that the Spring Festival of 2021 has just passed, last season's Chinese Super League champions, currently renamed Jiangsu team Suning club, is faced with the torture of how to survive.
Suning Group Chairman Zhang Near East in the first working day after the Spring Festival to deliver a reunion speech, in particular, "Suning Group's work in 2021 will be mainly focused on the main retail battlefield, for those who are not in the main retail track, we must take the initiative to do subtraction, contraction of the battlefield, the shutdown of the shutdown, the cut cut."
Are Premier League clubs on the proactive side of subtraction? Obviously yes, but how to do this subtraction? Is it to reduce inputs, cut some costs? Or completely shut down? As it stands now, anything is possible.
Currently, most teams in the Chinese Super League have already wrapped up their vacation after the Chinese New Year to open the second phase of winter training, but that doesn't include defending champions Jiangsu. Captain Wu Xi led his teammates and assistant coaches to ride in Nanjing Jiangxinzhou to maintain the state of the second phase of winter training is unknown, no head coach, and even do not know the fate of the club's future players, are anxiously waiting for the mystery to be solved.
In terms of the predicament that Suning Group is in, the tedious and time-consuming and costly tasks of selecting a manager and organizing winter training have become unimportant.
On February 10th, CITIC released its latest rating report, although maintaining Suning.com's main credit rating of AAA, it adjusted the rating outlook from stable to negative, because the proportion of Suning.com's short-term debt has been at a high level, and the coverage ability of the available monetary funds for the short-term debt is weaker, that is, the repayment ability is insufficient. The total principal amount of the company's surviving corporate bonds and medium-sized notes is 5.859 billion yuan, of which 5.359 billion yuan of principal is facing maturity and resale within 2021, and there is a greater pressure for bonds to concentrate on maturity, while the company's refinancing pressure has been greater in the recent past.
It is not difficult to see, Zhang Near East put forward the "two against" is targeted, the direction is one - retail, the method is two - efficiency and main business. For Suning, survival is the first place, as for the others, it seems less important.
The road of debt expansion, for which enterprises are ultimately very difficult, or overwhelmed by the collapse, or difficult transformation, or mergers and reorganization. Those who can survive must be able to + luck.
From Suning's current situation, in the next three years and even longer, around the main business will start a divestment and sell off non-main business assets, so the team's future, remains unknown.
Funding difficulties, making Suning can only save all aspects of expenditure, sell all assets not related to the main business. Especially in the first half of this year, in the policy is still in a relatively loose situation, if you can not take good advantage of the opportunity, once in the second half of the year, the policy is gradually tightened, may be more difficult days.
Therefore, compared to the crisis of corporate survival, winter training, selection of marshals, players to renew their contracts, these are major events for the club, but for the entire Suning Group, it is clear that it is not something that they must immediately solve at the moment. It can even be said that the survival of a soccer club is insignificant compared to the fate of the whole enterprise.
Suning's expansion, can not be said to be fast, Suning's development, can not be said to be bad. Thirty years, become the top few private enterprises, itself is a miracle. After leading domestically, there is an urgent need for foreign expansion, therefore, Suning entered the soccer field, taking the fastest way to connect with the world.
The two carriages of the Chinese Super League + Inter did quickly bring more attention and understanding to Suning's name in China and the world of soccer, but it equally increased the burden on the business.
In the 2015 season, Sun Tian brewing exit, Jiangsu provincial government for the club to find the next home, at this time, Suning took the initiative to find the parties concerned, said they are willing to take over Jiangsu soccer, and set up a grandiose goal: three years in the Chinese Super League to win the championship, and five years to win the Asian championship.
Suning Group's investment, it can be said for all to see, throwing RMB 523 million to buy Sun Tian as a whole, and then spent more than 700 million on players in three months, including 50 million euros to sign Teixeira, a transfer record, 28 million euros to pick up Ramirez, etc.; the introduction of internal reinforcements is also not stingy; on the coaching staff, the team of Choi Yong-soo was introduced. The total investment of the season reached 1.3 billion yuan, ranking first among all teams in the Chinese Super League.
In the same year, Suning threw in another RMB 2 billion to acquire a 70% stake in Serie A giants Inter Milan.
In the years since, Suning has maintained a certain level of investment in the club's investment, and last season, the first match system league in the Chinese Super League, Suning won the championship.
The enterprise is personal when it is small, but it is social and national when it is big, which has almost become the enterprise development concept of Zhang Near East.
"The relationship between social responsibility and enterprise is like compass and sailing ship, ideal and life. Practicing corporate social responsibility is the original intention of Suning's founding, and even more so, the constant intention of Suning's development." These are the most important words of Mr. Zhang.
Now Jiangsu team life and death, in fact, is precisely on the corporate social responsibility of a consideration, it seems in such a short period of time to find a suitable business to take over the hope is slim, because the club still has a lot of problems have not been resolved, so, can save Jiangsu soccer, I'm afraid that or Suning.
In fact, this year, the club encountered an existential crisis, not a few, Tianjin, Chongqing, Huaxia is also the case, Tianjin currently seems to be the most difficult, Chongqing and Huaxia have been helped by government departments, should be able to get through the crisis, but the situation on the side of Jiangsu, a word, uncertainty.
Ji Xiang, Zhou Yun, Gu Chao and others have not completed the contract extension with the club, theoretically, they are already a free agent; in addition, among the foreign aid, Teixeira is also a free agent, Miranda is said to have peacefully terminated his contract, Santini unilaterally terminated his contract, hoping to join Osijek, but the club hopes to get the transfer fee, as for Eder and Vakkasuo, there has not yet been any clear news.
Today's Suning has lost the possibility of spending a lot of money on its main business woes. But no matter what, this should not be the end of the story, perhaps, for Suning, the loss of a domestic club, is just a brave man hurt, but if the club because of the inability to access, lose the qualification of the Chinese Super League, for Jiangsu soccer, the loss is incalculable, and its social impact is unpredictable. In this sense, to save the Jiangsu team, and should not be only Suning a corporate problem.
Many people believe that no matter what, the basic survival can be guaranteed, even if they do not want to do it, they can not just throw it away, but will be like Sun Tian, find a suitable buyer, solve all the internal problems of the club, and responsibly hand over the team. As a matter of fact, when Sun Tian withdrew at that time, only Suning was willing to take up the burden of Jiangsu soccer.
In this year's predicament, Suning did make a relevant effort to find a buyer, only that, unfortunately, the current Chinese soccer, in the context of the club's neutral name requirement, is already an area that investors are reluctant to touch.
In his report, Inter's reporter Vanni of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica said that they learned through sources close to Suning Group that Chairman Zhang's comments were not aimed at overseas investment projects, including Inter, but referred to the domestic business in China, and that Suning has no intention of cutting down on Inter as a project. In other words, Inter won't just give up because there's still value and the possibility of a sell-off deal - but the Chinese Super League club, because of its many problems, is not necessarily a company willing to take over for nothing.
Unlike the internal decision of Zimtiger to give up, Suning should still have the possibility to save itself. But at least should be first access through, so that the possibility can continue. If Suning does not sell the club, you can also consider in the government to help absorb more shareholders to come in, like Jianye, the use of collective funding, at least share some of the operating costs and pressures, so that the team first live.
In fact, Suning's CSL title in the 2021 season was also won under very difficult circumstances, the runner-up in the AFC Cup, proving that the local players also have a fighting chance, even if the full Chinese class, it is not without a way to live, nothing is more important than to keep the fire. Regardless of the fate of Jiangsu soccer this year, but at least, can not and should not, in such a way to disappear.
