Dynamics of Football Reform
March 3, the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football League preparatory group to the clubs, the local government, the local football association issued on the three levels of the league to restore the home and away transfer letter was withdrawn, the results let the fans happy: the Chinese super 18 clubs agreed to restore the home and away.
The approval and declaration of the resumption of home and away stadiums need to take into account the local epidemic prevention requirements. With the recent rebound of the local epidemic in the country, the industry's expectation that the Chinese Super League will resume home and away stadiums on time has once again added some uncertainty.
The other two major events that concern the fans are the diversified shareholding reform of the club and the outstanding salary arrears of some teams.
Between these three, and has a close interconnection: the previous two consecutive years of the tournament system, resulting in the Chinese super exposure and brand value of the serious shrinkage, following the "neutral name" reform, once again impacted the enthusiasm of investors. The league's large-scale unpaid wages, in addition to the moral and legal levels should be blamed, from the economic level, is also a direct manifestation of the withdrawal of investors.
From the 2020 season, the trend began, from the 2021 season to become a large-scale soccer club "diversified shareholding reform", in fact, as early as 2015 in China's soccer reform overall development plan has been put forward. However, when it comes to the implementation level, it is the clubs that can be very healthy without shareholding reform that have completed it first, and even caused new transition problems due to the mandatory shareholding reform. While some other clubs in urgent need of injecting stability, the share reform has been slow to progress, adding more uncertainty to the league access and the handling of salary arrears.
From the perspective of long-term avoidance of salary arrears, to avoid the collapse of investors fleeing, to ensure that the "professional league" really become a professional league, with due commercial value, is always the first major event that China's soccer needs to face, for the professionalism, market penetration of the whole of China's sports sector is not sufficient, but also a key exploration and game.
Investors Retreat, Players Seek Paychecks
Since 1994, Chinese soccer started "professionalization" since, suffer from the problem of unpaid wages, not overnight. However, in the "gold dollar soccer" period, in addition to individual teams occasional wage arrears, the head of the club's huge investment, wage arrears basically in the Chinese super anonymity.
With the introduction of a number of constraints in recent years, Chinese soccer investors gradually withdrew, and the myth of high income in Chinese soccer is also gradually broken, replaced by salary reductions and salary arrears - this is in the case of the club still exists, while the worse situation is that the club directly disappeared.
Suning, who won the 2020 season, then "suspended operations"
In December 2020, in addition to the "gender-neutral name policy", the policy was accompanied by a limit on team investment (a maximum of 600 million yuan per year in the Chinese Super League) and a salary limit (no more than 5 million yuan for Chinese players and 3 million euros for foreign players).
After more than a year, the policy requirements introduced at the end of 2020 have basically been realized, but with the depression of the Chinese professional soccer in all aspects, and the national team in the World Qualification Tournament suffered "Hanoi tragedy".
Along with multiple suspensions and resumptions, the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League ended for the first time with a span of years. Before the start of the 2022 season of the Super League, the recovery of outstanding wages by players and the promotion of team share reform have become the primary issues to be dealt with, and have repeatedly triggered heated public debate.
Xiao Zhi openly asked for his salary on Weibo
In the near future, Wuhan team, Shenzhen team and other teams in arrears of wages, but also in the public opinion on the fermentation. Wage arrears in the 2021 season since the Chinese Super League, has become the "norm", and even the entire 2021 season does not owe wages to the club, the Chinese Super League only 2.
National footballer Artemisia publicly demanded his salary
Soccer Daily's Li Xuan talks about Shenzhen team's recent situation
On February 18, 2022, the Japanese J-League kicks off its new season, which will be preceded by the South Korean K-League and other leagues in order to accommodate the global schedule changes brought about by the World Cup in Qatar. Since 2021, the Japanese media has been openly discussing the possibility of liberalizing the J-League's "unisex name" restriction in order to increase club revenues and compensate for the losses caused by the epidemic.
Japanese media discusses J-League neutral name policy
Under different legal frameworks, it would not be prudent to make a simple and crude comparison between the CSL and neighboring leagues' guidelines, and it is difficult to directly replicate the guidelines of different leagues as they face different environments. However, it is a common goal for all Chinese soccer authorities to promote the sport within a professional context, to operate professional tournaments, and to ensure that the tournaments have the commercial value they deserve.
In the private investor "big tide" in the background, hope on the local government and state-owned enterprises to invest in the "diversified shareholding reform", has become another main theme of Chinese soccer. However, the status of shareholding reform varies from place to place, which also shows that not all the clubs where the government or local state-owned enterprises, are willing to pay real money to do not cost-effective "business".
Nearly 30 years of "professionalization", "renewal" still relies on emotion
On March 12, Dalian People's Club released an announcement, officially announcing the latest progress of the club's share reform. The Dalian Football Reform and Development Working Group signed an agreement with Wanda Group, Party Group and Dalian People Professional Football Club, whereby the Dalian Football Reform and Development Working Group will form a management team to receive Dalian People Professional Football Club and manage the club in its entirety.
It is worth paying attention to, the announcement mentioned, "According to the agreement, Wanda Group will undertake all the historical debts of the club before receiving more than twenty years and all the expenses of the club operation, youth training and Dalian campus soccer elementary school base school operation in the next three years, and donate the Dalian soccer youth training base with a total cost of about 1.6 billion yuan to the state-owned enterprise of Dalian city, DETA Holdings, for the development of the soccer cause. With practical action to show the affection for the hometown city and support for Dalian soccer."
Shareholding structure of Dalian People's Club as shown by Skywatch
In Wanda "return to Chinese soccer", although the actual operating expenses of the Dalian team by the Wanda Group, but the club's equity has been in the party's banner, the completion of the share reform, Wanda is expected to once again with the Chinese soccer "face goodbye".
In the Dalian people soccer club's share reform, Wanda commitment to continue to bear the debt and the next three years of operating costs, but also for the club's smooth transition to reserve a sufficient "buffer zone", is expected to become a model of share reform. Wanda's concessions, become the key to the success of the Dalian people share reform. According to a March 13 report by Sports Weekly, Wanda has paid the club's operating funds for 2022 into the account of the new management.
But this also leads to think: why after nearly 30 years of "professionalization", Chinese soccer still needs the "sentiment of investors to continue life" in order to financial stability?
Among the 18 teams in the 2022 season of the Chinese Super League, there are still private enterprises still involved in the Guangzhou team, Guangzhou City, Beijing Guoan, Shenzhen team, Henan Songshan Longmen, Cangzhou Lions, Wuhan team, Wuhan three towns, Hangzhou Greentown and other nine clubs, but with the advancement of the share reform process, the private sector's right to speak in the Chinese Super League is gradually declining.
In other clubs that have long completed the share reform, Shandong Taishan, Henan Songshan Longmen's finances were originally very healthy, the club itself has all kinds of assets, but also for the successful completion of the share reform to provide adequate protection. And is expected to complete the share reform of the club, Guangzhou City, the same financial not too many "legacy issues", is expected to successfully complete the transition with Guangzhou Automobile.
In stark contrast to Guangzhou City is the Guangzhou team in the same city. Unable to reach an agreement on the issue of pre-history debt, Evergrande Group will continue to operate the Guangzhou team independently in the new season, but with a drastically reduced budget and almost all of last season's starters will be lost to compete with the football academy's youth team as the base.
Also stalled in the share reform is the Hebei team. Up to now, Hebei team still has not started training. According to a March 14 report by Soccer Daily, Hebei Football Club is still coordinating with Hebei Province and Langfang City. Despite the fact that Hebei's operating costs have dropped considerably over the last season, and that Huaxia is willing to deal with the club's previous debts, there is still no suitable local party to hand over the shares.
In the modern social and commercial society, in addition to a few areas related to the basic livelihood of the people, "looking for investors who are willing to spend a lot of money", in fact, in all walks of life is a pseudo-proposition. Back to the issue of China's soccer stock reform is difficult, the root cause is still in the commercial value of the league.
However, after the 2021 season of the "fragmented league", fans' expectations of the Chinese Super League have also declined. Long-term inability to go to the scene to watch the game, but also many fans of the habit of watching football appeared "reverse growth". Offline, once The Chinese Super League at home is "unique". Online, only from the quality of the game, the Chinese Super League compared to the five major leagues, but there is no advantage.
If you want to reshape the Chinese Super League business, restart the league home and away is only the first step must be done. As of now, this "first step" is only just taken, did not land. However, even after the completion of the Super League restart home and away, the distance from the full range of pulling business, driven by youth training, is still a long way to go.
Along with investors pulling out in droves, in addition to disappearing echelons, ball-less teenagers, players owed wages, and fans away from the stadium, there are also investor expectations about the capital world continuing to be depressed - and this is not only the root cause of the difficulties of some clubs' shareholding reforms, but also difficult to be easily "cured" with the passage of time "cured".
