March 3, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and the CFL preparatory group issued a letter of transfer, revoked the ban on the restoration of home and away matches in the third tier league, the decision to make fans happy - the Chinese Super League 18 teams all agreed to restore the system of home and away matches.
The approval and declaration of the resumption of home and away stadiums needs to take full account of local epidemic prevention requirements. However, with the recent rebound of the local epidemic in the country, the expectation of resuming the home and away stadiums on time has been overshadowed once again.
At the same time, fans are also concerned about the club's shareholding reform and the issue of unpaid wages in some teams.
There is a strong link between the three: two consecutive years of the tournament system has led to a serious shrinkage of the exposure and brand value of the Chinese Super League, following the reform of the "neutral name", once again hit the confidence of investors. The league's massive salary arrears are not only problematic on the moral and legal levels, but also a direct sign of investor withdrawal from the economic level.
Since the 2020 season, there has been a clear trend of "multiple shareholding reform" for soccer clubs, which was proposed in the overall development plan for China's soccer reform as early as 2015. However, at the concrete implementation level, some clubs that have not carried out shareholding reform are operating well, while some clubs that are in urgent need of injecting stability have been slow to carry out shareholding reform, adding more uncertainty to the league's access and the handling of salary arrears.
In order to ensure that the "professional league" really become a professional league, with due commercial value, is always the first task facing the Chinese soccer, for the degree of marketization of the Chinese sports sector is not high, but also a key exploration and game.
Investors withdrew, the players pay, Chinese soccer since 1994 to start the "professionalization", the problem of unpaid wages has been plagued by the industry. In the "gold dollar soccer" period, in addition to individual teams occasional salary arrears, the head of the team's huge investment in the case, salary arrears in the Chinese Super League is basically anonymous.
However, in recent years, with the introduction of a number of restrictive policies, investors in Chinese soccer have gradually withdrawn, and the myth of high income in Chinese soccer has been gradually shattered, replaced by salary reductions and wage arrears - this is while the clubs are still in existence, or worse, the clubs have simply disappeared.
Suning, who won the 2020 season, then "suspended operations"
In December 2020, in addition to the "gender-neutral name policy", policies were introduced to limit team investment (the Chinese Super League's top spot is 600 million yuan per year) and salary limits (no more than 5 million yuan for Chinese players and 3 million euros for foreign players).
More than a year later, the policy introduced at the end of 2020 was basically realized, but with it came the overall depression of China's professional soccer, as well as the national team suffered the "Hanoi tragedy" in the World Qualification Tournament.
With multiple stoppages and resumptions, the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League ended for the first time in 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 the team's shareholding reform have become the primary issues that need to be resolved and have sparked heated public debate on a number of occasions.
The latest public payroll appeared in Tianjin Jinmen Tiger, Xiao Zhi, Zheng Kaimu in the microblogging voice to ask for unpaid wages, and said, in the case of foreign aid salary arrears were prioritized, but the Chinese players have no way to ask for wages, "very helpless".
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 continues to ferment. 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
In the Chinese soccer to start the "professionalization" of nearly 30 years, in addition to sentiment, Chinese soccer still need investors to "renew" in order to financial stability.
On March 12, Dalian People's Club released a notice announcing the latest progress of the club's share reform. The Dalian Football Reform and Development Working Group signed an agreement with Wanda Group, One Side Group and Dalian People Professional Football Club that the Dalian Football Reform and Development Working Group will form a management team to receive the Dalian People Professional Football Club and manage the club in its entirety.
It is worth noting that the announcement mentioned, "According to the agreement, Wanda Group will undertake all the historical debts of the club for more than twenty years before the reception and all the expenses of the club's operation, youth training and the operation of the Dalian School Football Primary School Base School for the next three years, and donate the Dalian Football Youth Training Base, which has a total cost of about 1.6 billion yuan, to the state-owned Dalian State-owned enterprise DETAI Holdings for the development of soccer work. 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 the Dalian people soccer club share reform, Wanda commitment to continue to bear the debt and the next three years of operating expenses, but also for the smooth transition of the club reserved 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 it also leads to thinking: after nearly 30 years of "professionalization", Chinese soccer still needs investors' "sentimental renewal" in order to be financially stable?
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 process of the share reform, 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. As of now, the Hebei team has still not started training. According to a March 14 report by Soccer Daily, Hebei Football Salon is still coordinating with Hebei Province and Langfang City. Although the Hebei team's operating costs have dropped considerably last season, and Huaxia is happy to deal with the club's previous debts, but now there is still no suitable local equity handover party.
In today's commercial society, except for a few areas related to basic livelihood, "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 for 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, the Super League used to be "unique" at home. 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 business of the Chinese Super League, restarting the league home and away is only the first step that 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.
With investors pulling out in droves, in addition to disappearing terraces, youngsters without a ball to play, players owed wages, and fans away from the stadium, there are also expectations about continued low funding from the capitalist community - and this is not only at the root of the difficulties in shareholding in some clubs, but also difficult to be easily "cured" with the passage of time "cured".
