Currently, the teams in China's top soccer league are generally facing a difficult survival predicament. However, recently they ushered in a piece of exciting news: the Chinese Football Association may convene a meeting to discuss the issue of solving the problem of attracting aid adjustment fee. If a final agreement is reached, many clubs will undoubtedly obtain a valuable "life-saving funds".
The Reinforcement Adjustment Fee (RAF) is a policy previously introduced by the CFA. Since the 2017 summer transfer window, clubs in the Chinese Super League (CSL) and the Chinese League A (CLA) are required to pay an equal amount of the RAF when the single reinforcement fund for the introduction of foreign players exceeds RMB 45 million yuan and the single reinforcement fund for domestic players exceeds RMB 20 million yuan.
The initial intention of the FA in launching this policy at that time was to curb clubs from pursuing short-term results and blindly attracting reinforcements at high prices, triggering a chain reaction in the market and affecting the healthy development of the league. Therefore, the reinforcement adjustment fee will be earmarked for funding long-term planning projects such as youth soccer talent development and the construction of soccer public welfare facilities.
The idea of the Football Association seems reasonable, not only to protect the "freedom of investment" of large clubs, but also through the levy of reinforcement adjustment fee, to balance the market overheating, short-term behavior may have a negative impact on the long-term development plan.
However, the ideal is very rich, the reality is very "bone". Citation adjustment fee policy brings not benefits, but many embarrassments.
On the one hand, the reinforcement adjustment fee lacks sufficient legal basis, and is essentially just a rule made by the Football Association as a trade management association. Even taking into account the fact that soccer management is characterized by a certain degree of "industry autonomy", this fee still appears to be somewhat unjustified.
In practice, although the introduction of the "twin towers" of the Guangzhou team, the introduction of Beijing Guoan Bakambu and Bieira, the introduction of Shandong Taishan Fellaini and many other transactions, the relevant clubs have paid the corresponding adjustment fee, but at the same time also appeared in the annual report of the Hong Kong Group leaked clubs did not pay Arnautovic attraction of adjustment fee of the "Episode". Shanghai Hong Kong said at the time, intends to pay, but due to the Football Association can not issue receipts, this up to 150 million yuan of expenditure can only be included in the group "age of more than 1 year of important other payables" to be temporarily shelved.
Hong Kong's reasoning is certainly tenable, but it also creates an objective double standard that is not quite fair. After all, most of its Chinese Super League rivals have "honestly" paid the money.
In addition to the lack of sufficient legal basis, not open receipts, the Football Association has received the use of reinforcement adjustment fee is also in a state of stagnation, and not as expected by the outside world as a large number of investment in favor of the long-term development of soccer projects, but lying in the account of the Football Association, "sleepy", the formation of the de facto shelved or even waste.
According to People's Daily, in late March this year, the State Administration for Market Supervision and Regulation (SAMSAR) sent a staff member to visit the CFA on the issue of fee compliance, with the intention of pushing the Association to rectify some unreasonable and illegal fees in its history.
China's professional soccer environment has changed dramatically from what it was three or four years ago. The big teams that were able to easily pay huge fees to regulate reinforcements are now looking forward to this fee as "life-saving money". Guangzhou and Beijing Guoan will use it to pay back salary arrears, while Shanghai Shenhua will be able to use the money to pay back former manager Flores, who won a lawsuit.
For the Chinese professional soccer in the winter, the reinforcement adjustment fee may only be a drop in the bucket, because most of the original strength to pay this fee are non-giant clubs, but at least it is now able to help these big clubs to solve the pressing problem. Since this money has not been utilized for the effect of "promoting development" that it was originally intended for, it is now being used to "maintain the livelihood", which is also a kind of mending the fold after the loss of the sheep.
"Attracting aid adjustment fee" may soon become "past time". The reasons for the failure of this initiative, in addition to certain force majeure, more from the soccer administrators in the formulation of the rules of the ill-considered and the implementation of the chaos of ineffective, it is worthwhile to do a further review.
