As a famous player in Chinese football and an executive committee member of the Chinese Football Association, Ma Mingyu has had some "entanglements" in the past two years.
Since becoming the general manager of Sichuan FC Club in 2016, the team he has managed has experienced many twists and turns, encountered financial problems after the highlight of undefeated and rushed to the brink of dissolution step by step.
According to a number of media in Sichuan, Sichuan FC has been in a state of "shutdown", and in the case of wage arrears, only the official announcement of dissolution is left.
In an exclusive interview with the surging news reporter, Ma Mingyu was helpless, but he was not desperate, "Many people are saying that 'winter' is coming, and players and people in the football industry are also facing thinking." ”
Perhaps, Ma Mingyu's idea is exactly in response to that sentence - after the great cold, it is Li Chun.
Ma Mingyu and Li Bing are the management core of Sichuan FC.
Three years, from glory to loneliness
Ma Mingyu said his work contract with Sichuan FC (formerly known as Sichuan Annapurna) began on October 31, 2016, and the term was three years. This means that, at the end of October last year, he no longer had a working relationship with the club procedurally.
"There's also some aftermath, some chores to deal with." He told the surging news reporter. In this way, he continued to be busy for the club's affairs, but in the end, Sichuan FC still failed to find the next home.
In fact, the crisis of dissolution was staged once as early as this time last year. At that time, Sichuan FC, which had just won the championship unbeaten in the 2018 season, almost disqualified from the 2019 season before the start of the 2019 season, because it could not obtain the salary and bonus table signed and confirmed by the players, and it was not until the last day of the deadline that it submitted the relevant materials at the last moment.
However, after playing hard in the middle division, the team's transfer road is still bumpy. Deyang Jingcheng, which initially planned to inject capital, withdrew halfway, and then entered the Daguan Group, which was also delayed in officially completing the transfer, and the Sichuan Football Association later temporarily took over the team in the form of trusteeship.
It wasn't until September last year that Sichuan FC saw the light of day – with the help of the Sichuan sports management department, the club received sponsorship from a number of local companies such as Wuliangye, with a total value of 85 million yuan, and the team was once on the right track.
However, the Sichuan Football Association's hosting date is only until November 2019, and after the end of last season's Central League A, the team once again fell into the dilemma of "no rice under the pot". With no hope for the future in sight, many players in the team are already looking for new jobs to make a living.
Ma Mingyu became the new executive committee member and director of the Athletes Committee of the Chinese Football Association.
After the team is disbanded, start again?
Along the way, watching this team that originally rushed to the middle division strongly and pinned on the expectations of Sichuan fans came to an end because of funding and transfer problems, Ma Mingyu was also full of regrets.
Even after the end of his contract with the club, he followed the situation of the team, as he said in a previous interview, "Like the coaching staff, my league contract is over. It is said that the Football Association is coordinating new investors, and I have learned something through the news. ”
When he first became the general manager of the team in 2016, Ma Mingyu also had a lot of pride, when he said to the outside world, "We hope that there are many parties working together to make Sichuan football rush to the Chinese Super League in the shortest time." I think as long as everyone works together, the time for Sichuan football to return to the Chinese Super League will be greatly shortened, Sichuan football needs a Chinese Super League team too much, and we are also eager for the 'yellow whirlwind' to blow up in Chinese football again. ”
However, the reality is cruel, and the dream finally fell in the middle of the road, but even so, Ma Mingyu did not intend to give up.
Recently, some netizens found that Ma Mingyu participated in the founding of a company called "Sichuan Hengyao Football Club" as a shareholder, and Ma Mingyu himself confirmed the news to the surging news reporter.
"Now we are stepping up our work to catch up with the 2020 season (China Champions League), which is an amateur club, and now a lot of players are training, and we are also opening our doors to the community and welcoming players from all over the world to tryout."
Ma Mingyu (right) looks forward to Sichuan football blooming again.
"Winter" is coming, not a bad thing
In fact, Ma Mingyu's current task is not easy, in addition to investing energy in the new team, he also became the new executive committee of the Chinese Football Association at the Football Congress in August last year, and then became the director of the Athletes Committee of the Chinese Football Association in November last year.
From the original captain of the national football team to today's multi-tasking, Ma Mingyu said that he is not tired, "(Energy) no problem, I believe that many football people are very hard. ”
In recent years, the clubs that have disappeared from the Chinese professional league system or suffered from the problem of financial arrears are not only Sichuan FC, but many others, especially in the lower leagues, and many teams have encountered operational difficulties.
Last season, several Chinese League A and Chinese B teams disbanded for financial reasons, including Yanbian Fude, who had worked hard in the Chinese Super League. The situation has not improved this season, according to many reports, at present, there are four teams in the Chinese League A that have suffered financial problems, accounting for a quarter of the entire Chinese First Division, while in the Chinese Second Division, there are only a lot more teams with financial problems.
It is precisely because many clubs have failed to submit relevant materials on time, on January 15, which was originally the deadline for the Chinese Super League To submit the "2019 Salary and Bonus Confirmation Form" for the Chinese Super League's Chinese League A and China Champions Clubs, the official website of the Chinese Football Association issued a notice to postpone the deadline for submitting the confirmation form to 17:00 on January 31.
But 15 days may just be the difference between "death penalty" and "death deferral". Meng Yongqiang, an investor in Baoding Rongda, said on the Internet, "The 15-day grace period is too short, even if some clubs pass the pass, next year will be more miserable." At present, Baoding Rongda has also been exposed to long-term salary arrears, only waiting for the official announcement of dissolution.
For the current dilemma of the low-level league, Ma Mingyu also had a lot of feelings in an interview with the surging news reporter.
"Now Chinese football is in a period of change. Many people are saying that 'winter' is coming, and in the 'low tide' after the tide, players and people in all football industries are faced with thinking about how the development of professional leagues can be regulated and lasting. ”
"I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, but these lows and these thoughts in professional football are a kind of paving for better development in the future."
"There are many reasons for the bad environment. For example, we need more investors, give investors more support, and create a good environment for them, so that football can do better. After the low tide, as long as you can find the right path, calm down and make the right choice, so that Chinese football can develop healthily, this is the most important. ”