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Meizhou, the "hometown of football", has finally realized its dream, and the first county-level team in the history of the Chinese Super League was born!
On December 22, Meizhou Hakka Football Club successfully overtook with the second place in the Chinese First Division. This is the first Chinese Super League football club in Meizhou's history, and it is also the first top league team from the county level in the 28 years of professional chinese football. It should be pointed out that the location of Meizhou Hakka Football Club is not in Meizhou city, but in Wuhua County under the jurisdiction of Meizhou. In the Chinese football world, which has long been accustomed to the golden dollar strategy as the supreme standard, why can a county-level professional club be among the Chinese Super League?
In a sense, when the world has long been accustomed to equating Chinese football with the crazy money-burning and false prosperity of the Golden Yuan era, Wuhua County, where Meizhou Hakka Football Club is located, and even the whole of Meizhou, can be called a living sample of understanding another Chinese football ecology. Although Meizhou is not economically developed, wuhua county is a well-known poor county in Guangdong, but here football history is deep, football culture inheritance is orderly, football industry chain is complete, and the football audience is huge. Obviously, Meizhou Hakka can surpass the success, not only thanks to the investors' persistent investment enthusiasm, but also to realize the nourishment of the rich and fertile land of the "hometown of football" behind them.
As early as 1873, football has been introduced to Meizhou and soon integrated into the local cultural genes, football in the Republic of China era has become one of the most popular sports in the local area, Meizhou was thus identified as "the birthplace of modern football Chinese mainland", in 1956, the National Sports Commission awarded Meizhou the honorary title of "Hometown of Football". In the long history of Meizhou football, there have been "ball kings" Li Huitang, Zeng Xuelin, Xie Yuxin and other famous football players of the past, and Meizhou is regarded as a typical representative of "Hakka football" and "southern football".
Since the revitalization of the "Hometown of Football" plan was proposed in 2009, Meizhou has issued 19 special documents for football development, covering the physicalization of the Football Association, the support of professional clubs, the construction of venues, talent training and industrial cultivation. Among them, the most supported and the most eye-catching in the industry are the "Meizhou Football Comprehensive Reform Plan" (2015), the "Meizhou City Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Football" (2012), the "Meizhou City Revitalization of the "Football Town" Ten-Year Plan" (2010), "Meizhou China Football Special Zone Construction Plan" (2021) and other documents. In 2018, Meizhou took the lead in proposing the creation of a special chinese football zone nationwide, and put forward the goal of "one place and three fields", that is, to become a technical highland of "southern football" and a productive field for the output of football talents, a test field for football reform and innovation, and a demonstration field for the integration and development of the football industry.
With the success of Meizhou Hakka, Meizhou, a long-established "football town", is regaining the world's widespread hot discussion and high media attention, and its corresponding measures and development achievements in the construction of China's football special zone will also be put under a magnifying glass for detail. At the same time, at a time when the Golden Age of Chinese football is running out of steam and wandering the wrong way, Meizhou, which is stable and far-reaching, is expected to provide another development idea and practice sample for Chinese football.
Meizhou Hakka: Wuhua's "native" own children are expected to become the benchmark of the small ball city team
Meizhou is the "hometown of football" in China, while Wuhua County is the "hometown of football" in Meizhou. Whether you want to understand the history of football in Meizhou, the "hometown of football", or want to explore the secret of meizhou Hakka football club's success, Wuhua County football is the most worthy of analysis.
Wuhua County is not only the location of meizhou Hakka football club that has successfully surpassed this time, but also the most important composition of the history of meizhou's "football hometown" football development. Whether it is the traceability of the history of Meizhou's "Football Town" or the revitalization of Meizhou's "Football Town" in recent years, Wuhua County constitutes its main framework.
Wuhua County is located in the southwest of Meizhou City, with 16 towns, an area of 3237.8 square kilometers, a total population of 1.52 million, mainly Hakka. According to the "Chronicle of Wuhua County", in 1873, the Frenchman Charles Piton and the German Heinrich Bender founded a church school in Yuankeng Village, Changbu Town, Wuhua County, Yuankeng Bookstore. During the school, Bian Dezhi taught students to play football. This is the earliest record of modern football teaching recorded in Chinese history, and the establishment of the Yuankeng Zhongshu Library is also regarded as a sign of the official introduction of modern football into the Chinese mainland. In 2013, Wuhua Changbu Yuankeng erected a monument to "the birthplace of Chinese mainland modern football". As for the football figures who came out of Wuhua, there is no doubt that Li Huitang, the "Asian Football King", was the first to promote him, and his name has long been a business card of Wuhua, Meizhou and even the whole Of China football.
In recent years, many achievements of Meizhou football have also been pioneered in Wuhua. Wuhua was once a provincial-level key poverty alleviation county, until June 2020, when it finally successfully "removed the hat". But even so, Wuhua County's investment in football is impressive. Under the strategy of the local government adhering to the "football card", Wuhua has shined in the aspects of event operation, talent training, venue construction, and industrial chain construction, and has become a key area for football development in the city and even the province. Wuhua's professional football, youth football, football field, and football town all represent the highest level in Meizhou.
For example, among the three professional football clubs in Meizhou, two are headquartered in Wuhua, and one county has two professional clubs at or above the level of the second division, which is unique in China; Wuhua youth football records are excellent, from 2016 to 2019, Wuhua County has won 50 youth football championships at or above the municipal level; Wuhua football field construction efforts are also ranked in the forefront of Meizhou's districts and counties, and the number of football fields in Wuhua is more than 300, which is more than the total number of courts in some cities in Guangdong Province In terms of the football industry, Wuhua Hengpi Football Town, which was completed in the first phase of the project in 2019, is located in Hengpi Town, Wuhua County, which is the only football theme project in the first batch of pilot projects of sports and leisure characteristic towns in the country announced by the General Administration of Sports.
Specific to Meizhou Hakka Football Club, it is Wuhua's "native" own child. The club was founded on 10 December 2012 by Wei Jinping, a local private entrepreneur in Wuhua. Wei Jinping is the chairman of Guangdong Xinjinwei Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., a local real estate enterprise in Meizhou, born in Wuhua Hengpi, and can be described as Li Huitang's "hometown". Since the establishment of the club, the general manager of the club has been Cao Yang, a local in Meizhou, who has made careful calculations in the operation of the club and ensured the stability of the team's record with scientific investment.
Over the years, the club's structure and management model have remained stable, and Cao Yang advocates the concept of "localization" team building. Cao Yang once said, "We not only want to become the leader of Meizhou football, but also hope to build a big platform for the development of local players in Guangdong." ”。 Compared with many rich football clubs, although the investment scale of Meizhou Hakka Club is not large, it is "small and complete". Qi Wusheng, who once served as the coach of Meizhou Wuhua Team, praised: "I have seen almost all professional clubs in China, and there are few small but fine clubs like Wuhua, whether it is training, life or management, Wuhua Team is enough to be called a normative example." ”
From the beginning of the Chinese Second Division in 2013, to the Meizhou Hakka championship in 2015, the successful entry into the Chinese First Division, and now the success of the super, Meizhou Hakka Football Club has been based on the local football culture along the way, adhering to the cultural inheritance of the "hometown of football", and moving steadily and far. At a time when the tide of the Golden Yuan of the Chinese Super League is retreating and there are naked swimming giants everywhere, the operating philosophy of Meizhou Hakka may allow more Chinese Super League teams to return to rationality, and even inspire more small-ball city teams to succeed as soon as possible.
The secret of the revival of the football town: intensively issued 20 football support documents to build a football special zone
The secret of the revival of Meizhou's "football town" mainly lies in "government leadership, social participation, market operation, and overall development". The focus is to continue to introduce various football support policies, continuously increase financial support at all levels, innovate land and financial service support methods, and implement special preferential policies such as taxes and fees.
Looking back in 2021, the road to the revival of Meizhou football in recent years stems from the revitalization plan proposed by Meizhou in 2009. Meizhou has since introduced as many as 20 football support policies. Among them, the "Meizhou Professional Football Club Upgrade and Relegation Support Measures" and the "Meizhou City Accelerated the Development of the Football Industry Implementation Opinions" have taken great pains to support professional football clubs.
For example, Meizhou's middle league one clubs give priority to the annual land supply plan in terms of land use, give priority to the construction land indicators, and give supporting sports complex construction projects, and halve the real estate tax on the headquarters economy of professional football clubs, football towns and other large sports venues. For professional football club players who pay personal income tax of more than 10 million yuan, 20% of the total amount of personal income tax paid will be refunded, and the municipal, county (city, district) organs, public institutions and enterprises at all levels may purchase tickets for home events in the form of trade union activities.
In 2018, Meizhou took the lead in proposing the creation of a special chinese football zone nationwide, proposing the goal of "one place and three fields", that is, to become a technical highland of "southern football" and a productive field for the output of football talents, a test field for football reform and innovation, and a demonstration field for the integration and development of the football industry. In February 2021, the "Meizhou Football Special Zone Construction Plan" was officially released, proposing three goals in the near term, medium term and long term.
Among them, the short-term goal (2020-2025) to build or upgrade 100 football fields, schools with open conditions, 100% campus football venues to achieve free or low-cost opening to the public, the total number of professional sports clubs participating in the Chinese Second League or above reached 2-3, and strive to achieve male and female professional clubs to enter the Chinese Football Association Super League at the same time, cultivate 2-3 brand events with international influence, Meizhou cultivates many players to enter the Chinese football (men's / women) national team at all levels, The youth football population accounts for 50% of the total number of students in school, and the basic indicators of football development have entered the forefront of cities in the country.
The medium-term goal (2026-2030) is to participate in 3-5 professional clubs above the Second Division of the Chinese Football Association, create 3-4 brand events with international standards, the city's licensed coaches reach more than 2,000, the city's youth football population accounts for 55% of the number of students in school, meizhou cultivated adult players 7-8 people into the Chinese football (male / female) national team, becoming a well-known city in Asian football.
Long-term goal (2031-2040) The overall football level is at the leading level in domestic cities, the total output value of the football industry has reached 3 billion yuan, and the city's youth football population accounts for more than 55% of the total number of students in school, becoming a football city with wide popularity and influence in the world.
At present, at a time when the tide of gold dollars in Chinese football is gradually receding and the development of football is in urgent need of transformation, Chinese football is more than ever hoping to be healthy and sustainable, which is also the original intention of the Chinese Football Association to release the "2020 China Provincial and Municipal Football Development Health Index Report". As the health index of football development ranks first in the country, Meizhou can undoubtedly provide more new ideas for the future transformation of Chinese football.
Note: The images used in this article are from the Internet