Author: Sun Hong no thunder
There are too many grassroots people who have built the so-called "Chinese football". Most people's stories, you don't have a chance to see.
Years ago, even in the context of the Winter Olympics, football was particularly lively.
In the two matches with Japan and Vietnam, in the face of almost no chance to qualify, the Chinese men's football team lost, and they were scolded for a whole Spring Festival.
In the Asian Cup, the Chinese women's football team has achieved a good play of backward reversal again and again, won the championship, and achieved a double harvest of spirit and results.
The victory of the women's football team has not aroused everyone's widespread attention to the entire women's football team. The first thing you can see is who sponsored the women's football team with how much money. And through the women's football and men's football team who should earn more, began to question why the men's football team earned so much, and then began to widely condemn the men's football team.
condemn... Even instigating suicide.
When there are thousands of participants in the discussion of one thing, and everyone has to speak up, there is no specific content. For example, a large number of "men's football dissolution" opinions, shouting people may not consider the problem of this matter at the practical level: who will guide it, who is involved, how many steps are needed, how to prioritize, and what details to pay attention to.
How much does dissolution still need to be considered? Needed. You see so many clubs are not playing, and there are not many real "dissolutions", all of which are transferred or stopped or empty shells. Why don't they disband? Because the dissolution is responsible. But we must not follow those who shout "men's football disbandment" to argue these problems one by one, and recall how many times Tang Monk was beaten in "Journey to the West".
Deliberately poor a few words, because the next topic, more serious.
One
On the night of the Chinese women's Asian Games, the Beijing women's football team was still in trouble.
At the end of 2016, Beijing Enterprises City Development Group cooperated with Beijing Xiannongtan Sports School to register the Beijing Phoenix Women's Football Club, and Beijing Enterprises Chengfa held 100% of the club's equity. The first period of cooperation between the two sides is 6 years, with the goal of winning the professional league championship in 3 to 5 years.
After the investment, the Beijing Enterprises Phoenix women's football team began a large-scale reinforcement, and in three years, Liu Shanshan, Zhao Rong, Xu Huan, Yang Man, Wang Fei, Ma Xiaoxu, and Zhang Linyan joined one after another. The team brought in the manager Kim Björk glen, who had just led Linköping women to the Swedish League title and reached the top 8 of the Champions League, as well as a large number of world-class foreign players: Spain national team captain Veronica Poquet, South African internationals Timbi Gatrana and Linda Motjarow.
The signings did not change their results quickly, and in 2017 and 2018, the Beijing Phoenix women's football team ranked 6th in the Women's Super League (a total of 8 teams participated). Since then, the team manager has been replaced by Yu Yun, who has been coaching since then, and he led the team to 5th place in the league in 2019 and 4th in 2020 (the number of participating teams in 2020 has expanded to 10).
As the grades gradually improved, there was breaking news. On December 31, 2020, Beijing Enterprises Chengfa announced to Beijing Xiannongtan Sports School that it will no longer inject capital into the team in 2021. The reason given is that although the cooperation period is 6 years, the total amount of committed funds has been completed in the previous 4 years. The sports bureau hopes to stick to the 2021 National Games, and the team retains.
This incident has two main consequences for the team:
First, the income of all staff members has been greatly reduced. The income of the coaching team and the players is divided into two parts, one is the fixed salary and various subsidies, from the Xiannongtan Sports School, the specific income of the coach is linked to the title, and the specific income and identity of the players are linked: the official players with Beijing account and the non-Beijing account agreement players are about the same, and the income of trial players (grades) is only 70% of the former.
But most of their income comes from the training fees provided by Beijing Enterprises, and the ratio of salaries to training fees is about 1:2. The highest paid player can earn a total annual salary of one million.
Now, most of their income is gone.
Second, the club has no transfer fee budget. This matter is easier to understand, that is, you can't buy people, you can only find a way in the free transfer market.
However, only wages and subsidies are left, and the treatment provided by the Beijing women's football team has no attraction in the market, let alone the inability to attract reinforcements, and it also faces a situation of personnel loss.
Xu Huan and Zhang Linyan left the team, and even Gu Yasha, who had been in the Beijing team for many years, also left the team.
The loss of personnel has brought about a decline in performance. In 2021, the ranking of the Beijing Phoenix Women's Football League dropped to 8th. And this year's National Games, Gu Yasha, Zhang Linyan, Wang Fei and other players represented Beijing, and the team finally ranked 4th (why can there be two sets of teams, you look back).
On December 31, 2021, Beijing Enterprises and Xiannongtan Sports School signed an agreement, and Beijing Enterprises returned the management rights of the club and the registration rights of players to Xiannongtan Sports School, ending the 6-year cooperation period ahead of schedule.
The player registration deadline is approaching, and it is still uncertain whether the Beijing women's football team can find a new partner. This means that if no sponsors are found in the new season, the Beijing women's football team will continue the vicious circle of the previous year: no more income, no transfer fees, and continued loss of personnel.
At present, Wang Yanwen, who has just won the Asian Cup for China, is the most likely player to leave. Zhao Rong has decided to retire, Wang Chen will also retire, and the new season will enter the coaching staff with Ma Xiaoxu. Yu Yun has transferred 10 young players from the U-18 echelon to prepare for the new season.
"Young players certainly can't replace experienced veteran players right away, and losing is the price of a comeback, but losing is hard and no one wants the result. At least we have to relegate this season, at least don't play women's first division next season. Yu Yun said.
Yu Yun coached the Beijing women's football team as a member of Wang Haiming's coaching team. "In the past, so many coaches have brought the Beijing women's football team, I just don't want the Beijing women's football team to fall here." This is not the first time he has said this, and he said the same thing in the post-Game interview.
Why is it that after 4 years of burning money, the North Control Phoenix women's football team still failed to win the championship? Without the capital injection of enterprises, how can women's football survive and how can they live well? To clarify these reasons, we have a lot to say.
Two
Beijing Control officially "entered the game" at the end of 2016. Quan Jian's entry into the Dalian women's football team was in October 2015.
In February 2016, a report in the Peninsula Morning Post recorded a press conference of Dalian Quanjian women's football team, at which Shu Yuhui, the owner of Quanjian Group, said: "When Quanjian acquired Dalian women's football last year, women's football celebrities like Ma Xiaoxu had a salary of more than 10,000 yuan, like many players with better male football levels, the annual salary was 10 million yuan, and the treatment of women's football was too far away from them. The Chinese team that can win glory for the Chinese nation and the motherland in the world has not received people's attention and social support, and has not received good results, but has received people's attention and pursuit, which I think is abnormal. I've come to pay them well, I've come to respect them, I've come to encourage them. ”
Today, 6 years later, the income comparison of men's and women's football players can still be a hot topic. Shu Yuhui's words are put to the present, and they must cater to public opinion. But at that time, Shu Yuhui also proposed the goal of cultivating 10 players to be selected for the national team in five years, which has long been impossible to talk about.
In any case, Quan Jian at that time did increase the income of the players, and also attracted Wang Shuang, Wang Fei and Li Donna to join, while bringing in three Brazilian internationals Fabiana, Gabriela and Dembora. A year later, all three foreign players were replaced, and African Football Miss was brought in, playing for Arsenal's Assissat Ossola. Later, wang shanshan, the current captain of the Chinese women's football team, was also introduced.
From 2016 to 2018, Dalian Quanjian Women's Football Team won the Women's Super League three consecutive championships.
In fact, before Quan Jian took over, Dalian was already a strong women's football team, and before winning the championship, it was second only to Shanghai in 2015. In the original team, Ma Xiaoxu, Bi Xiaolin, Pang Fengyue, Gao Chen, Song Duan and others are all international players.
The change came two months after winning the triple crown.
On January 1, 2019, the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Organs filed a case against Quanjian Natural Medicine Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd. for suspected crimes of organizing and leading pyramid schemes and false advertising. As of January 7, 2019, 18 criminal suspects, including Shu Yuhui, have been criminally detained in accordance with law.
10 days later, Dalian Quanjian women's football Weibo was last updated, with the headline "All-China Class Battle Cyprus Powerhouse, Dalian Women's Football Team Is Still Fighting". In fact, the club has fallen into chaos, and Pang Fengyue, Ma Xiaoxu and Wang Shanshan have left the team in the transfer window. Later, in the 2019 Women's Super League, the team changed its name to Dalian Women's Football, ranking at the bottom of the 10 participating teams, and although the play-off defeated Hebei Huaxia Happiness Relegation, it was announced at the end of the year.
Two years before the dissolution of dalian women's football team, Tianjin Huisen women's football team announced that the adult group withdrew from the professional league. In the official announcement, there are a few words: "The development of women's football is inseparable from the national system, before 2015, the club invested millions of dollars a year to solve the funding needs, after 2015, with the changes in the women's football market, the treatment of athletes has doubled." After the end of this year's National Games, our club is expected to invest between 25 million and 30 million next year, and now we can't afford to pay the children's wages, aren't we even more sorry for these cute children? ”
In 2015, it was the beginning of the women's football golden age. That year, LeEco sponsored the newly restructured Women's Super League and provided two live broadcasts per round. Of course, compared with the men's football team that began to burn money earlier, the "burning" of women's football is not fierce, and the investment is far from being comparable to the degree of doubling or the total amount.
But the Tianjin women's football team still couldn't stand it and left. After Quan Jian's mutation, the operating costs left by the Dalian women's football team were too high, so that no one could pick up, and the Dalian side in the same city, that is, today's Dalian people, formed another team to start from the women's first division.
Many people shout "equal pay for men and women", and no capable person dares to achieve it. The Chinese women's football team, which is built on the national system and fundamentally serves the Municipal Games, the Provincial Games, the National Games and the Olympic Games, not only cannot earn back the operating costs of the industry in the commercial field, but even most clubs are difficult to generate income.
"Women's football players deserve a higher income", this sentence is strong and just, and I am willing to do so. It is possible to "burn money", the question is, where does the money come from? Indignation itself does not make money.
Three
What is the operating cost of The Chinese women's football club and the salary income of the players in the world? In FIFA's FIFA Benchmarking Report - Women's Football, many figures are given:
For example, the average annual operating expenditure of league clubs, China ranks first in the world.
Wages account for 56% of total expenditure, the third largest proportion in the world after Australia and Thailand.
In terms of income, sponsorship accounts for 42%, associations provide 26%, and "other" accounts for 22% without specific description, which amounts to 90% of the average income of the club.
But in terms of the number of sponsors, Chinese clubs are only in single digits, ranking in the lower and lower reaches of the world. This data does not directly indicate the total amount of sponsorship received by the club, but it can explain the level of marketization of the country's women's football team. The top rankings are all developed countries, and England, which only has the top women's football league in 2010, has also come to the middle of the ranking.
There have been 11 teams in the history of the Women's World Cup semi-finals, and interestingly, compared with the above picture, 9 of them appear in the top ten of the above picture. The two developing countries of Brazil and China, one relies on the export of players, and the other relies on the national system, which is not a typical European and American market economy.
The high sponsorship rate is not the same as the high attendance rate, in terms of the average number of attendance per game, the United States is far ahead, and the Women's Super League, which is complained by many people about "no one pays attention", has 1840 people in 2019, ranking 4th in the world.
The highest attendance match that year reached 11,863 people, against Beijing and Wuhan.
Back at the beginning of the text, at the end of that year, Beijing Enterprises announced that it would stop investing. Looking back, the people who participated in the league and the National Games that year were not a set of teams. Players join other clubs on loan, but their ownership remains with the local sports bureau (or football management centre) and their qualifications to play in the National Games. The results of the national system are the most important parts.
There is also a lot of data on the state of women's football in the world: for example, 57% of clubs do not sell season tickets; 70% of clubs are loss-making; 66 clubs are affiliated with men's football clubs; the average club budget is 700,000 US dollars; 80% of clubs have gyms; 21% of clubs have swimming pools; 73% of clubs have tactical meeting rooms, etc...
Share a little, broaden your horizons, and don't comment more. Let's get back to the point.
In FIFA's women's football report, the section on Chinese women's football only involves 10 clubs participating in the 2020 Women's Super League, and the competition only involves the Women's Super League. I am afraid that it is difficult to reflect the deeper situation of Chinese women's football.
At the level of women's football, whether to transition from the national system to pure marketization is not the same in different places.
Four
In 2019, instead of Dalian women's football team, it was Jiangsu Suning women's football team that won the championship in the women's Super League.
At the beginning of 2016, Suning Sports Industry Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Suning Group, wholly registered Jiangsu Suning Women's Football Club. After increasing investment, he won the 2017-2019 FA Cup triple crown, the 2018 and 2019 women's football championship two consecutive titles, and the 2019 Women's Super League championship.
At the beginning of 2021, Suning Group suddenly announced that it would stop operating Jiangsu Suning Football Club, in addition to the men's football team that had just won the Chinese Super League championship, the women's football team was affected.
This year, they participated in the 2021 Women's Super League under the name of Jiangsu team, and although the foreign aid left, they still reached the final and won the runner-up for the second consecutive year.
Also in the face of the strong shock after the divestment, why is the Jiangsu women's football team more stable?
In 1998, the Jiangsu women's football team was established, and at first many of the team members turned from athletics.
In 1999, the women's football project entered the Jiangsu Provincial Games, and Jiangsu began to develop women's football projects.
That year, Wang Jianjun entered the Suzhou Sports School, and after retiring from the military, he first studied at the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education, and after graduation, he became the women's football coach of the sports school, responsible for forming the 1987/88 women's football team. Including this team, the Suzhou Sports School at that time had only two women's football teams of the age group.
"There were not many children playing football at that time, we chose them from various places on the 'whiteboard', the youngest child was 12 years old."
The basic model is that teams like Suzhou participate in the provincial games, and excellent players are selected to enter the provincial team and participate in national competitions. At that time, the Jiangsu Provincial Sports Bureau and the Department of Personnel jointly issued a policy, cooperating with Xuzhou Normal University (now Jiangsu Normal University) to let the Jiangsu provincial team members in 1985/86 go to college at the age of 18.
Around 2010, Jiangsu Province added more incentive policies to women's football: players who scored in the top 3 at the National Games could choose a one-time retirement fee placement when they retired, or enter the work placement of the establishment.
Benefiting from this policy, a number of Jiangsu women's football internationals began their grassroots journeys after retiring from the military. Song Xiaoli is in Suzhou, Zhou Gaoping is in Taizhou, and Weng Xinzhi is in Wuxi.
The preferential policy brings stable talent output: Zhang Yanru, Weng Xinzhi, Zhou Gaoping, Zhou Feifei, Zeng Ying, Ma Jun, Yang Li, Ge Yang, a number of players have been selected for the national team. In the Chinese women's football team that won the Asian Cup, Li Mengwen, Wu Chengshu, Yao Lingwei and Wang Xiaoxue are all from Jiangsu.
Among them, Li Mengwen is the player selected by Wang Jianjun when he led the team as a coach.
"She was practicing track and field, running 400 meters, and when she participated in the Suzhou Athletics Games, we picked it. We did some work with our parents to allow her to play football. Later, she felt that Li Mengwen was developing well, so she let her brother also play football. Wang Jianjun said.
After 16 years as a women's football coach at the grassroots level, Wang Jianjun became the vice president of Suzhou Sports School, in charge of football work. Today, he is the chairman of the Suzhou Taihu Football Sports Center, and the two teams of the Chinese men's and women's football team that have returned to China have trained in the Taihu Lake base.
"Before 2019, our team was in the sports school, when there was only 1 11-a-side field, 1 8-a-side venue, and 3 5-a-side venues, and there was no more echelon development. Later, the cooperation established the current Taihu Lake Football Sports Center, which has a foundation for broadening the team reserves. ”
Today's Taihu base has nearly 20 football fields, since 2019, Suzhou Sports School has successively set up 7 women's football teams of different ages in 2005/06, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, with the goal of adding one team every year.
"Men's football primary school we are walking training, to the junior high school age, and the high-tech zone experimental junior high school cooperation, the boarding system of elite training, weekend to the base training." The women's football team is still fully centralized, like the two teams in 2013/14, we cooperate with Xiangshan Experimental Primary School, usually eat and live in the center, and the bus takes you to school and training every day. Wang Jianjun introduced that the cost of food and accommodation is subsidized by the sports school, and it is very small to pay, as for the training fee, the small player does not need to pay. At present, in the winter and summer vacation training, the team members eat and live in the supporting hotel of the Taihu Lake Football Sports Center.
"The sports school will also ask teachers to make up lessons, and will follow the team during winter training to ensure that the children's culture does not fall behind, which is free." Wang Jianjun said: "Only about 1/3 to 1/4 of the children can go to the professional team, and we must at least ensure that every child can go to college." ”
At present, most of the Suzhou women's football players participating in the provincial games are first-class athletes, at least second-level, and most of them will enter various provincial teams. Instead of entering Jiangsu Province, but exchanging players from other provincial teams, the Suzhou Sports School will sign an agreement with the other side.
"We stipulate in the agreement that the other provincial team must ensure that the child goes to college." Wang Jianjun said. "There will also be children who have entered the provincial team and stayed in Suzhou, and we will continue to protect their cultural education." Even if you don't play football, you will have to work in the future. ”
In the future, Wang Jianjun hopes to build the Taihu Football Sports Center into a "leading domestic world-class" football sports center, while improving scientific research and rehabilitation guarantees. The goal in 2023 is to upgrade the Taihu Football Sports Center into a new type of football school and become a national football reserve talent base.
"Now, our echelon goes out to play games, and it's all planes going, planes back. The conditions are good, and it is completely different from the past. Wang Jianjun said.
In the past two years, Taihu Lake Base has undertaken a large number of activities such as men's and women's football, Chinese Super League, coaches and referee training classes at all levels. Behind the ups and downs of the past two years is the continuous work of grassroots people in the past 20 years.
Don't say envy, who envy who does 20 years.
In Jiangsu, there are 13 prefectures and cities that provide talents for the provincial team, and Suzhou Sports School is one of them. This means that there are about 400 children to choose from in each age group, which does not seem exaggerated, but it is still growing year by year, let's imagine if there are another 20 years...
In contrast, in Beijing, the elite sequence of women's soccer teams available for each age group is about 100 people. "The first team has almost no Beijing-based players." Yu Yun said: "A lot of traditions are being lost. ”
Subject to many issues such as hukou and student status, the current Programs in Beijing that allow children to combine their studies with elite football training are extremely limited. As the head coach of a team, Yu Yun cannot solve such a huge problem, but he has to pay the price of achievements because of these problems.
The capital that brought turbulence to the Dalian team and the Tianjin team, as well as the systematic talent training foundation that parted ways with Jiangsu, together, is the complete reason why the Beijing women's football team is currently in trouble.
Five
Today, the youngest child of the women's football team of Suzhou Sports School is in the first grade, which is 6 years earlier than when Wang Jianjun first recruited women's football in 1999.
The Shanghai Putuo women's football team has covered the kindergarten class.
On the day I wrote the article, I saw someone in the circle of friends posting a film with The name of Qian Hui in the title. I thought it was made after winning the championship, but after clicking on it, I found that it was an old feature in 2011, and the reporter was Xu Jun of the former five-star sports.
The one-handed shooting and interview, 15 minutes long, is a production that is almost invisible in the current domestic football content. In the film, Coach Qian said: "As long as I don't retire, I will definitely stick to the football school." ”
Coach Qian Hui still works in the front line today, but in the interview with Xinhua Network after the game, her appearance has changed a lot. 28 years of grassroots youth coaching work is unimaginable to many people.
The results of perseverance include Tang Jiali, Zhang Xin, Yang Lina and Zhao Lina in this group of women's Asian champions.
Today, Coach Qian Hui's husband, Zhang Xiang, is also the principal of the Putuo District Youth Amateur Football School, to which putuo women's football team belongs. The women's football team's operating model is also more stable, and cooperation with Jinshajiang Primary School and Meilong Middle School ensures that children can complete their studies while training in football.
Back in 2011, when the film was just mentioned, Shui Qingxia led the Shanghai U-17 women's football team to win the national U-17 women's football championship. Many of the players trained by Coach Qian Hui entered the youth team led by Shui Qingxia and the Shanghai women's football team that he later brought.
Shui Qingxia's husband, Wang Jiaming, is the current leader of the Shanghai women's football team, which is another football couple.
Today, Shui Qingxia led the Chinese women's football team and led the above-mentioned players to win the Women's Asian Cup after 16 years, and the whole country rejoiced for a while.
Each player comes from a different place, how they got on the road of football, how they got into the national team step by step, there are people behind them, there are stories.
There are too many grassroots people who have built the so-called "Chinese football".
I would like to share two copies of the 2015 questionnaire, when the Chinese women's football team U-14 was playing at the Xianghe base in the U-14 Women's East Asian Championship, which had almost no media coverage.
Zhang's questionnaire came from Zhang Linyan, who was 14 years old at the time. In Question 9, I asked, "How long is the average time spent with my parents every day for a year?" ”
Her response was: "Twice a year, for ten days each." ”
The unit I asked was "day" and the unit she answered was "year.".
Now, she is a member of the Chinese women's asian cup winning.
This questionnaire comes from Zheng Maomei, the head coach of the Chinese U-14 women's football team at the time. In Question 10, I asked, "What do you hope to do in the future?" ”
Zheng Maomei's answer was: "Cultivate more women's football reserve talents." ”
Seven years later, Zheng Maomei was the assistant coach of the Chinese women's U-17. Word.
At that time, the content of the survey, had written an article: "A survey report on a 14-year-old football girl", which can be clicked back. You have seen it, and you will have a deeper feeling for people who are deeply involved in football.
Ten years is not short enough to make us overlook the details of the efforts of many individuals on the same front. Now that the Chinese women's football team has won the championship, there is an opportunity for me to tell the stories of these people and have the opportunity for you to see. Twenty years is not short, in the Chinese football environment while scolding, while insisting on trial and error forward, there are many people. Most people's stories, you don't have a chance to see.
Information on women's football is not systematic and is particularly limited. When writing this article, I got help from many people, including someone who told me: "Try not to write my name, I don't want to take advantage of the popularity of women's football, I want to do my job steadily." ”
I sincerely hope that everyone who works hard will make more money. Whether it is women's football or men's football, whether it has anything to do with football or not. I truly believe that the surest way to make everyone more money is to work hard every day.
At last... Speaking of chinese football as a whole, no one should represent anyone
At the end of last year's Chinese Super League, after Chongqing was relegated, I saw a video. The team's players, coaches and staff circled around, and head coach Zhang Wailong only said a few words, and everyone couldn't help but start crying. In the whole season, they only got 10% of all income.
In the absence of income, to fight for their uncertain future with relegation, many of the details brought about by the problem of funds spread to everyone, between people, and for collective projects, it is likely to be fatal.
On impulse, I expressed through the players that I wanted to meet with Zhang Wailong's guidance. About 36 hours later, I met him in Chongqing.
I said, "I don't know why I'm coming, I don't know what I'm going to do, I just think I should talk to you, after all, there aren't many people who can cry for football." ”
He took out a small notebook from his bedroom, and a blue paginated folder stuffed with paper, and opened it for me to take a cursory look at. The small book contains his daily handwritten notes, and the folder contains all the previous training content and game plans.
"If one day I leave China, I will leave all this behind and help Chinese football as much as possible." Zhang Wailong said.
There are still many conversations, and I know his story, let's talk about fate.
After that, Zhang Wailong did not leave China immediately, but followed the club to a share reform meeting. Like Chongqing Liangjiang Athletics, clubs that have experienced Golden Dollar Football and suffered wage arrears are the majority of domestic men's football clubs.
The New Year's holiday has passed, and many players around me have left home and started the training preparation for the new season after months of arrears or even annual wages, and they are not sure what the next salary will be.
Practitioners in this industry are scolded because they chose the industry but failed to beat their international opponents. In fact, most people in life, aren't they like this? And the revenue part, in addition to ability, is also related to the industry. Some people caught up, some people didn't catch up, that's all.
At the beginning of the year, the dramatic turmoil caused by the difference in the performance of the two national teams of the men's and women's football teams will be discussed in the coming period, creating a flow of limited nutrients and many impurities. People forget many specific facts and remember many passages that are difficult to distinguish between true and false. Like viruses, this information increases transmission and irritation in the process of human-to-human transmission, but it never increases authenticity.
At the same time, people who work at the grassroots level of the industry are still working.
Who's going to make the industry better?
A little late, I wish you all a Happy New Year.
Text/Sun Lei