In order to accelerate the pace of domestic professional football league reform, the Chinese Football Association began to push the club neutral name policy last season. In this context, clubs at all levels of the domestic league have also responded to the call and changed the name of the club.
From the current situation, there are only three Chinese Super League clubs that can keep their original names, they are Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Shenhua and Changchun Yatai, because investors have completely divested their equity relationship with the club, so that the names of these three clubs can be retained.
Because it cannot be related to the name of the investor, many Chinese Super League clubs can only bring the name of the province or city after the change, which makes the name of the team lose its representativeness at once, and it sounds more like the name of the local team. For example: Guangzhou team, Hebei team, Qingdao team and Wuhan team.
In order to make the team's name more recognizable, some clubs are also preparing to adjust the team name again in the new season, and Wuhan is the first bold attempt.
As we all know, as a Chinese Super League powerhouse, the Wuhan team in the past 2 seasons is quite uneven. In the 2020 season, after Li Tie was transferred to the national team, Wuhan invited The Spaniard Jose to be the manager of the team, and it was obvious that the Spanish coach's ability was not enough to coach the Chinese Super League team, and after only half a season, he was swept out by the Wuhan club.
After the change of coach, the Wuhan team did not come out of the trough, and the Chinese coaching team composed of Ma Yongkang and others brought the Wuhan team all the way into the relegation area. Fortunately, after the club promised a high relegation bonus, Wuhan barely beat Zhejiang Greentown in the Super League play-offs and was able to stay in the Chinese Super League.
Last season, the Wuhan team, which planned to change its way of life, invited local coach Li Xiaopeng and introduced a number of new signings. However, the team's results still did not improve, and they won only one game in the first stage of the league.
In the second stage of the league, under the leadership of interim coach Li Jinyu, Wuhan won a wave of consecutive wins before it was able to complete the relegation task again.
Two consecutive seasons of big investment have not been rewarded as they should, so the top management of Wuhan club began to think about whether the new name of the club has had an impact on the team.
Therefore, they also made a decision after last season to change the team name to Wuhan Yangtze River twice, hoping to make this new name bring good luck to the team.
As we all know, next season there will be two Chinese Super League teams in the Wuhan area - Wuhan Yangtze River and Wuhan Three Towns. Obviously, the name "Wuhan Yangtze River" seems to be more atmospheric than "Wuhan Three Towns". Let the Wuhan team first surpass the little brothers in the same city before the start of the league in the new season.
Of course, the team's league performance is still measured by the ability of their players and coaches, and it is not enough to change the name.
As the champion of the Chinese League One last season, the three towns of Wuhan after the success of the rush are extremely ambitious, and have signed a number of new signings in recent times. Judging from the current comparison of the strength of the two teams, the three towns in Wuhan are really likely to give their big brother in the same city a chance in the new season.
Nevertheless, Wuhan, as the first club to change its neutral name twice this year, is also making the first bold attempt. As for whether the new name "Wuhan Yangtze River" can be used in the new season, it also depends on whether the Football Association can make a timely approval...