The head of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), Chen Xuyuan, has recently suffered an unexpected storm, and a series of controversial incidents have since surfaced. Media reports revealed that he allegedly demanded 1.7 billion yuan in so-called "signing adjustment fees" from clubs, an act that proved to be an illegal demand for fees from businesses; he had a vague stance on the policy of naturalized players and even pressured naturalized players, leading to the failure of the policy's implementation; and during the outbreak of the epidemic, he enforced the implementation of clubs' neutral names, causing the economic pressure on several clubs to be doubled and forced them to disband. During the epidemic, he forced clubs to implement neutral names, causing many clubs to multiply their economic pressure and have to announce their dissolution; what's more, Chen Xuyuan was suspected of looking for people to play poker in the dead of night during the national football team's West Asia campaign.
This has become another major incident on the road to fighting corruption in Chinese soccer. Many people think Chen Xuyuan has made a big mistake, but he can't possibly take all the blame. It's like catching a thief in the village and having all the chickens coming home to roost in the village over the years on his head. Many believe that the culprit for the club's dissolution was the neutral name policy enforced by Chen Xuyuan. But in fact, the root cause was the bursting of the gold-dollar soccer bubble and the impact of the epidemic. The parent companies of many clubs were unable to support their operations and had to declare bankruptcy. Chongqing and Guizhou are typical of these.
Chen Xuyuan's predecessor, Cai Zhenhua, was a table tennis professional, but few people were optimistic about his tenure. After all, he was a "layman" who was not a soccer professional. Cai Zhenhua himself viewed the FA as a springboard and was not involved in much substantive work during his tenure. However, he pushed for the naturalization of foreign players, which ultimately led to the realization of this great idea, but unfortunately, this achievement was overshadowed by Chen Xuyuan.
Chen Xuyuan has become the chairman of the Football Association since leaving Shanghai SIPG. A professional who took over as FA chairman at the end of 2019, he has asked clubs at all levels of the league to complete neutral name reforms before the start of the 2021 season or lose their registration status.
In the long run, the implementation of neutral names will be conducive to the healthy development of Chinese soccer. Many European and American centuries-old clubs, such as Chelsea, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, etc., have been using neutral names. Most of the Chinese clubs are named after real estate investors, and once the investors withdraw their money, the clubs have to change their names, and some fans even jokingly call the Chinese professional league the "real estate league".
The initial intention of the CFA in implementing neutral names was good, aiming to create a cultural identity for clubs among fans and to promote the healthy development of clubs. However, the CFA's imposition of the reform has resulted in many clubs struggling to cope and eventually going bankrupt.
Difficulty in implementing a neutral name for the soccer environment
Enterprises investing in Chinese soccer and expecting to profit from it are like daydreams. Most real estate companies invest in soccer with the aim of using their parent companies to enjoy tax exemptions, policy tilts and other benefits, while revenues from tickets, naming rights and advertisements are negligible for them. This is also why fast-money Internet companies are reluctant to get involved in soccer. As a result, the implementation of neutral names by the Football Association has resulted in these real estate companies losing the lowest team naming rights. Who else wants to dance with you?
Epidemic adds to financial burden on clubs
Chen Xuyuan insisted on the implementation of a neutral name policy, which he could not predict when the epidemic would end when it was so severe that he had to push through. Clubs lost ticket and advertising revenue and struggled to survive. Investors behind the clubs had difficulty continuing to invest. After the implementation of neutral names, the investing companies even lost their team names. No one is willing to take over the business if they want to get out of the predicament. Some small and medium-sized clubs can only end up defaulting on wages or announcing their dissolution.
As such, Chen Xuyuan is unaccountably responsible for the bankruptcy and dissolution of a number of small and medium-sized clubs. If he could have slowed down the pace and delayed the implementation of neutral names for a few years, perhaps the Furniture and Music Division could have survived the winter as well.
