When will we see the figure of the professional league?On May 19, Chen Xuyuan, president of the CFA, responded to this topic in an interview: "The professional league should come out after a thousand calls." However, his answer did not quell the voice of doubt. It has been nearly two years since Chen Xuyuan first promised to set up a professional league, and despite the steady progress of the three-tier league under the guidance of the preparatory group this year, the professional league has yet to be officially listed, a fact that cannot be ignored.
Has there been any substantial progress on the promise made by President Chen this time? According to our understanding, the management of the preparatory group is being adjusted, a "new face" with rich experience in organizing and coordinating tournaments and the resources of local sports bureaus may join to accelerate the process of the formation of the professional league.
Chen Xuyuan summarized the reasons for the slow advancement of the professional league, the most critical of which is: "The division of power must be clear. What should the league do? What should the FA do? What are the rules of procedure in the implementation process? Why is the formation process so long? Because we need to study these issues clearly before the establishment, not ambiguous, otherwise the operation of the process will be faced with personal subjective judgment brought about by the problem." This relationship of authority is also one of the reasons for this personnel restructuring.
Under the epidemic, the professional league needs to coordinate not only the internal problems of the three levels of the league, such as the determination of the tournament area, which requires full communication with the local government and the Sports Bureau, the use of government resources. In the future, if the system of home and away matches is resumed, the support of the city government is even more necessary. In addition, this year's Chinese Super League appeared government-led equity reform clubs, such as Cangzhou Lions, Henan Songshan Longmen, is also the future trend of the league. The State Council football reform program clearly put forward: "Optimize the club's equity structure. The implementation of government, enterprise, individual multi-dimensional investment, encourage the club local government investment in equity, the formation of a reasonable investment source structure, and promote the realization of the club's regionalization." All these need to strengthen communication with local governments and sports bureaus.
The Preparatory Group for the Professional League needs people with both professional league management experience and government resources. Liu Jun and Huang Shenghua, as the two leaders of the preparatory group, are responsible for the competition level and business operation level respectively, and they have played an important role in ensuring the normal operation of the league. However, the Preparatory Team is also increasingly aware of the need to strengthen government resources in the future.
Shi Qiang, currently the Secretary General of the Asian Cup China Organizing Committee, has been involved in important organizational and coordinating work such as the 2004 Asian Cup and the implementation of China's overall soccer reform and development plan in 2015. He has considerable experience and exposure in soccer. Shi Qiang's love for soccer and his work experience in the General Office of the General Administration and the Asian Cup Organizing Committee give him the ability to communicate smoothly with all levels of government and sports bureaus, which is crucial for the professional league preparatory team.
Some people think that the leader of the professional league should come from the clubs, but this idea limits the resources and is too narrow. If Shi Qiang becomes the leader of the professional league, he will be a person with professional ability, government resources and no interest entanglement with the clubs, which will be conducive to the independence of the professional league.
Shi Qiang's internal evaluation of the Asia Cup Organizing Committee is: "High emotional intelligence, able to listen to different opinions and unite the forces of all sides." As a professional league where the interests of all parties converge, it needs a helmsman who can balance and harmonize the contradictions of many aspects.
