On the evening of February 15, Beijing time, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) released a notice on carrying out the access work of the Chinese Super League, Chinese A League and Chinese B League clubs for the 2023 season! This time, the FA adjusted some of the terms!
In the club development structure segment, it is required that Super League clubs have a 6-tier ladder, Super League 1 clubs have a 5-tier ladder, and Super League 2 clubs have a 4-tier ladder. Each team has at least 18 players registered with the club. It also re-emphasized that professional clubs should participate in the operation of teams and support the development of women's football; the supported women's football teams should participate in the Women's Super League, Women's First Division or Women's Second Division!
The requirements for stadiums are specifically labeled "Commercial establishments in stadiums and stadium safety zones (including the outfield portion) shall cease operations and promotions on game day, cover branded elements, and refrain from advertisements and content that violate the league's commercial regulations. Also, provide adequate commercial, non-commercial displays and fan interaction areas in the stadium and stadium safety zones (including outfield sections)."
At Level B, the level of the Head Coach's Coaching Certificate explicitly requires an A level or ongoing A level training.
This time, the location of the training base of the B club is also clearly required "should be within the registered member association, or within 100 kilometers of the jurisdiction of the registered member association of the club".
For the qualification of ladder coaches, the Football Association has specifically labeled that the head coach of the Chinese Super League U211, Chinese Super League and Chinese First Division U19 must have an A-level certificate or be attending A-level training.
In addition, the Football Association also requires teams to actively and seriously participate in the AFC Champions League and the FA Cup, not to give up the matches without any reason, and to send the strongest team to strive for good results. In addition, the added disciplinary regulations clearly require clubs to implement the disciplinary regulations and arbitration awards set by the International Sports Arbiter, FIFA, AFC, CFA, China Sports Arbitration Commission and other institutions; and to pay arbitration payments, fines and late fees within the specified period.
Among the financial standards, the FA requires clubs to submit annual financial statements by February 28 each year, and requires clubs to submit financial budgets by February 28 each year!
This time around, many of the New Deal for Access additions and tweaks have been introduced.
On December 21, 2017, the 2018 professional club access regulations announced by the CFA required that there be five tiers of ladders in the Chinese Super League and the Chinese First Division, and four tiers of ladders in the Chinese Second Division!
The criteria given five years ago for a team's training base was that it "should be within the registered boundaries of a member association or within 100 kilometers of the jurisdiction of the club's registered member association."
The 2018 edition of the Professional Club Admission Regulations clearly requires the head coaches of the U19 ladder teams of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese First Division to have A-level certificates!
On January 3, 2019, the Football Association announced additions and adjustments to the CFA's professional club access regulations, adding that "Chinese Super League clubs must have women's football" and that "commercial establishments in stadiums and stadium safety zones (including the outfield portion) should cease business and publicity on match days to cover branding elements, and shall not violate the league's commercial regulations on advertising and content. At the same time, sufficient commercial, non-commercial displays and fan interaction areas are provided in the stadium and stadium safety zones (including outfield sections)"!
But during the three-year epidemic, soccer throughout China was in relative difficulty; time and time again, soccer associations gave in on the issue of access when many of the music departments couldn't even pay their basic salaries. Not only did many music departments continue to play in leagues, but ladder setups and women's soccer teams were no longer a necessary option in order to help each music department reduce expenses. With the departure of many of the large expatriate teachers, a new generation of local coaches; the level of coaching certificates for ladder coaches and B head coaches has been relaxed in order to give young coaches more opportunities, as have the basic requirements for the B departments...
However, have the FA's constant concessions achieved good results? Should the FA really be making concessions on some of the most basic rules?
If the ladder team is not a necessary choice for professional clubs, and everyone doesn't do youth training, where will the future talents of Chinese soccer be chosen from? If coaches are rushed to the shelves without systematic learning and training, how can these coaches who lack the ability to practice lead the ladder team well? What about bringing a large group of youngsters who are polishing in the Chinese B?
For once, the real new rules only require clubs to take the AFC Champions League, the Super Cup and the associated adjudication results seriously. Considering that in the last two or three seasons, the Chinese Super League teams had no intention of falling in love with each other in the AFC Champions League due to the epidemic, and either retired or sent their youth teams out to take a beating! Back-to-back crushing defeats have caused the Chinese Super League's technical scores to plummet, which is one of the reasons why Du Zhaocai has failed miserably in the AFC elections this time around. In the past two years, apart from a handful of teams that took the FA Cup seriously, most of them came and just went through the motions; this foolhardy attitude and frequent occurrence of boring match scenes also seriously damaged the brand value and commercial value of the FA Cup! At this point, these two binding regulations may be interpreted as a "temporary necessity"!
Three years into the epidemic, not only are our clubs having a difficult time making ends meet with continuous fixtures + poor quality of play, but the league's ratings, brand value and commercial value have plummeted, with a serious loss of fans! Now, with many officials, coaches and players taken away, Chinese soccer is about to hit rock bottom in any dimension. This time, with access to soccer associations being pushed back to the standards of 4 or 5 years ago, could this be the beginning of a righting of the ship?
