When will the establishment of a professional league become a reality? In a speech on May 19, CFA President Chen Xuyuan responded to this, "The professional league has been called for a thousand times." However, this promise has triggered a chain of questions from the media and fans. Nearly two years have passed since Chen Xuyuan first promised to establish a professional league. Despite the steady progress of the three-tier league this year under the coordination of the preparatory group for the professional league, the "professional league" has not yet been officially listed, nor is there a clear identity.
Is President Chen's promise backed up by concrete progress? The answer is yes. According to our reporter, the management of the professional league preparatory group is undergoing a major adjustment. Unsurprisingly, a "new face" with rich experience in organizing and coordinating the management of tournaments, as well as resources from sports bureaus around the world, will join the preparatory group of the professional league and lead the accelerated formation of the professional league.
When summarizing the reasons for the slow advancement of the professional league, Chen Xuyuan mentioned three points, but the most crucial of them is: "It is necessary to clarify the division of authority. What should the league do? What should the FA do? What are the rules of procedure in the implementation process? Why do I say that the process of forming the league is long, because we have invested a lot of time in studying this issue. It must be clarified before it is formed, and there can be no ambiguity, otherwise dealing with issues based on personal preferences and feelings during the operation process will surely lead to problems." Chen Xuyuan mentioned the relationship between authority and power is also an important reason for this personnel adjustment in the preparatory group of the professional league.
During the epidemic, professional leagues needed to coordinate more than just internal issues within the three tiers of leagues, such as determining the tournament zones, which required full coordination and communication with the local governments and sports bureaus, and the use of government resources. With the resumption of the home-and-away match system, it is even more important to have the support and collaboration of the city governments where the three tiers of leagues are located, which requires not only a great deal of work, but also relevant resources. This year, starting from the Chinese Super League, there are some clubs with government-led equity reform, such as Cangzhou Lions and Henan Songshan Longmen, which will be the future trend of the league. The State Council football reform program clearly mentioned: "Optimize the club's equity structure. The implementation of the government, enterprises, individuals, multiple investment, encourage the club where the government to soccer stadiums and other resources to invest in shares, the formation of a reasonable structure of the source of investment, to promote the realization of the club's geographic region, and to encourage the conditions of the club to gradually realize the name of the non-enterprise. Improve the club's corporate governance structure, accelerate the construction of modern enterprise system, based on the long-term, systematic planning, and strive to build a century-old club." The program has been set, then the future to help more clubs to enter this model, coordinate the management of this type of equity clubs, also all need to strengthen the communication with the local government and sports bureau. In today's professional league is more and more dependent on the government's power, purely investor alliance, it is difficult to achieve the goal of development and growth of the league.
The league needs both people with professional league management experience and people with government resources. Previously, the two leaders of the professional league preparatory group, Liu Jun was mainly responsible for competition level work, and Huang Shenghua was mainly responsible for business operation level work. Both of them have a solid and steady working style, ensuring the framework of the three-tier league, doing a good job of managing the more controversial referees, and doing a good job of distributing the broadcasting rights of the league after the withdrawal of Sports Olympics to ensure that the three-tier league will be carried out normally in a situation where the investors are generally depressed. Whether it is the timely release of match statistics after each round of the league, the timely handling of disciplinary matters, or even the timely disclosure of appeals against controversial penalties, all of them reflect the brand-new working style of the preparatory team of the professional league. However, in this process, the preparatory group of the professional league is also increasingly aware of the need to strengthen the resources at the government level in the future.
At the moment, it seems that the most likely person to join the professional league preparatory group to strengthen this link is Shi Qiang. Shi Qiang, who is currently the Secretary General of the Asian Cup China Organizing Committee, used to work in the General Office of the State General Administration of Sports. Although his resume does not seem to have much to do with soccer, but in fact as early as 2004 during the Asian Cup, Shi Qiang had been a member of the working group in the capacity of an important organization and coordination work. 2015, in order to promote the implementation of China's soccer reform and development of the overall program, Shi Qiang in the State Council set up by the Inter-ministerial Conference on the Reform and Development of China's Football Office, during the period of many visits to professional clubs to visit and research, accumulate a lot of first-hand information on the professional league. In 2019, Shi Qiang participated in the preparatory work for the 2021 Club World Cup and the 2023 Asian Cup, serving as the secretary general of the preparatory office, and in October 2020, serving as the secretary general of the organizing committee of the 2023 Asian Cup. Secretary General of the Organizing Committee. So it seems that he has quite a lot of experience and work experience in soccer.
People who have contacted Shi Qiang know that his love for soccer has even reached the degree of "obsession", and he insists on watching and playing football all year round, and has his own ideas on soccer. Most importantly, his work experience in the General Office of the General Administration and the Asian Cup Organizing Committee has allowed Shi Qiang to establish a very smooth communication channel with the relevant ministries and commissions, departments and bureaus of the General Administration, and sports bureaus at provincial and municipal levels. China's professional soccer future important initiatives, are inseparable from the implementation of the implementation of the local development, more or less need to deal with the local government, and the professional league leader if the local sports director of the "old friend", the value of the work of the help can be imagined.
Perhaps some people think that since the professional league represents the interests of the clubs, it is only natural that the leader of the league should also come from the clubs. However, this kind of thinking is instead a constraint on one's own resources, which is a bit narrow-minded. The system of rotating chairmanship may seem reasonable, but under the current reality, it does not guarantee the continuity of the policy. If Shi Qiang finally takes office in the professional league, then he is a leader with professional ability, government resources, and no interest entanglement with the clubs. Moreover, once he finally takes office in the league, he will definitely make a thorough cut with his previous work, and the independence of the professional league need not be worried.
"High emotional intelligence, can listen to different opinions, unite the strength of all sides", this is the Asia Cup Organizing Committee internal evaluation of Shi Qiang. As a professional league where the interests of all parties converge, it is inevitable that the specific opinions and demands of all parties will diverge, and it is especially necessary to have a helmsman who is able to balance and coordinate the contradictions of many aspects.
