Sports Big Business No. 2839, welcome to pay attention to the leading sports industry information platform
Wen | Zhuang Tour
Sports big business reporter
On March 3, the Chinese Football Association and the Preparatory Group of the Chinese Football Federation issued a letter to clubs, local governments and local football associations regarding the resumption of home and away games in the three-tier leagues, and the results also made fans happy: all 18 clubs in the Chinese Super League agreed to resume home and away games.
The approval and declaration of home and away games in the league need to take into account the requirements of local epidemic prevention. With the recent new wave of domestic epidemic rebound, the industry's expectations for the timely resumption of home and away games in the Chinese Super League have once again increased some uncertainty.
The other two major issues that concern fans are the club's diversified shareholding system reform and the unresolved salary arrears of some teams.
There is a close correlation between the three: the previous two consecutive years of competition system, resulting in a serious reduction in the exposure rate and brand value of the Chinese Super League, following the "neutral name" reform, once again hit the enthusiasm of investors. In addition to the moral and legal aspects of the large-scale wage arrears in the league, from the economic level, it is also a direct embodiment of the withdrawal of investors.
Since the 2020 season, there has been a trend, and the "multi-shareholding system reform" of football clubs that has become a scale since the 2021 season has been proposed as early as 2015 in the "Overall Development Plan for China's Football Reform". However, at the specific implementation level, it is a club that can be very healthy without share reform, taking the lead in completing the share reform, and even triggering new transition problems due to compulsory share reform. For other clubs that are in urgent need of stability, the stock reform has been slow to make progress, adding more uncertainty to the league access and the settlement of wage arrears.
From the perspective of avoiding wage arrears for a long time and avoiding the collapse and escape of investors, ensuring that the "professional league" truly becomes a professional league and has its due commercial value has always been the top priority that Chinese football needs to face, and it is also a key exploration and game for the entire Chinese sports community that is generally not fully professionalized and marketized.
Investors retreat, players ask for salaries
Since 1994, when Chinese football began to "professionalize", it has not happened overnight that it has been plagued by the problem of wage arrears. However, in the "Golden Dollar Football" period, in addition to the occasional unpaid wages issued by individual teams, the head club invested hugely, and the unpaid wages basically disappeared in the Chinese Super League.
With the introduction of a number of restrictions in recent years, Chinese football investors have gradually withdrawn, and the myth of high income in Chinese football has gradually been shattered, replaced by salary cuts and wage arrears – this is when the club still exists, and worse, the club simply disappears.
Suning, which won the championship in the 2020 season, then "stopped operating"
In December 2020, in addition to the "neutral name policy", there were also policies to restrict team investment (the highest position in the Chinese Super League is 600 million yuan per year), as well as salary restriction orders (Chinese players are not more than 5 million yuan, foreign players are not higher than 3 million euros).
After more than a year, the policy requirements introduced at the end of 2020 have basically been fully realized, but what followed was the all-round depression of Chinese professional football and the "Hanoi massacre" suffered by the national team in the World Preliminary Tournament.
With many interruptions and rematches, the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League ended in a New Year's Eve for the first time. Before the start of the 2022 season of the Chinese Super League, the recovery of wages owed by players and the promotion of team stock reform have become the main problems that need to be solved, and they have also triggered heated public opinion many times.
The most recent public salary negotiation appeared on the body of Tianjin Jinmen Hu, Xiao Zhi and Zheng Kaimu denounced the need for salary arrears on Weibo, and said that in the case of foreign aid arrears being solved first, Chinese players have no way to ask for salaries, "very helpless".
Xiao Zhi publicly asked for a salary on Weibo
In the near future, the problem of wage arrears of many teams such as Wuhan and Shenzhen has also been fermenting in public opinion. Wage arrears in the Chinese Super League since the 2021 season have become the "norm", and even the entire 2021 season of clubs that do not owe wages, there are only 2 in the Chinese Super League.
International player Arthur Joon Min openly begs for a salary
"Football News" Li Xuan talked about the recent situation of the Shenzhen team
On February 18, 2022, the new season of the J-League in Japan kicked off, and in order to adapt to the changes in the global schedule brought about by the Qatar World Cup, leagues such as the Korean K League were also played in advance. Since 2021, the Japanese media has repeatedly publicly discussed the possibility of the J-League relaxing the restrictions on "neutral names" in order to increase club income and make up for the losses caused by the epidemic.
Japanese media discuss the J-League neutral name policy
Under different legal frameworks, the simple and rough comparison of the league policies of the Chinese Super League and neighboring countries is not rigorous, and the environment faced by each league is different, and the policies are difficult to directly copy. However, how to promote football in the professional field, operate professional events, and ensure that the events have their due commercial value is the common goal of football authorities in various countries.
In the context of the "great ebb and flow" of private investors, the "diversified shareholding system reform" funded by local governments and state-owned enterprises has become another main theme of Chinese football. However, the situation of stock reform in various places is different, which also shows that not all local governments or local state-owned enterprises in the club are willing to pay real money and silver to do uneconomical "business".
"Professionalization" for nearly 30 years, "continued life" still relies on feelings
On March 12, Dalian Ren Club issued an announcement officially announcing the latest progress of the club's share reform. Dalian Football Reform and Development Working Group signed an agreement with Wanda Group, Yifang Group and Dalian Renren Professional Football Club, and the Dalian Football Reform and Development Working Group will form a management team to take over Dalian RenRen Professional Club and exercise full management over the club.
It is worth noting that the announcement mentioned that "according to the agreement, Wanda Group will bear all the historical debts of the first 20 years of the club's takeover and all the expenses of club operation, youth training and Dalian Campus Football Primary School Base School operation in the next three years, and donate the Dalian Football Youth Training Base with a total cost of about 1.6 billion yuan to Dalian State-owned Enterprise Detai Holdings for the development of football, showing its feelings for its hometown city and support for Dalian football with practical actions." ”
The shareholding structure of Dalian Renren Club shown in "Sky Eye Check"
After Wanda's "return to Chinese football", although the actual operating expenses of the Dalian team were borne by Wanda Group, the club's equity had previously been under the umbrella of one party, and after the completion of the share reform, Wanda is expected to say a "decent farewell" to Chinese football again.
In the share reform of Dalian Ren Football Club, Wanda promised to continue to bear the debt and operating expenses for the next 3 years, and also reserved a sufficient "buffer zone" for the smooth transition of the club, which is expected to become a model of share reform. Wanda's concessions have become the key to the success of Dalian's stock reform. According to Sports Weekly reported on March 13, Wanda has transferred the 2022 club's operating funds into the account of the new manager.
But it also leads to thinking: why after nearly 30 years of "professionalization", Chinese football still needs the "emotional continuation" of investors to be financially stable?
In the 2022 season of the 18 teams of the Chinese Super League, there are still 9 clubs such as Guangzhou, Guangzhou City, Beijing Guoan, Shenzhen Team, Henan Songshan Longmen, Cangzhou Lions, Wuhan Team, Wuhan Three Towns, and Hangzhou Greentown, but with the advancement of the stock improvement process, the voice of private companies in the Chinese Super League is gradually decreasing.
Among other clubs that have already completed the share reform, the finances of Shandong Taishan and Henan Songshan Longmen are originally very healthy, and the various assets owned by the clubs themselves also provide a full guarantee for the smooth completion of the stock reform. Among the clubs that are expected to complete the share reform, Guangzhou City's finances also do not have too many "legacy problems", and it is expected to smoothly complete the transition with GAC.
In stark contrast to Guangzhou City, the Guangzhou team in the same city, due to the inability to reach an agreement on the issue of historical debt, Evergrande Group will continue to operate the Guangzhou team independently in the new season, but the budget has been drastically reduced, and almost all the main forces of last season will be lost, with the football school youth team as the team to participate.
Also at the stalemate in the stock reform is the Hebei team. As of now, the Hebei team has not yet started training. According to the "Football News" reported on March 14, Hebei Football Club is still coordinating with Hebei Province and Langfang City. Although the operating expenses of Hebei team have been greatly reduced last season, and Huaxia is willing to solve the previous club debt, there is still no suitable equity transfer party in the local area.
In the contemporary business society, except for a few areas related to the basic livelihood of the people, "looking for investors who are willing to spend money unjustly" is actually a false proposition in all walks of life. Back to the difficult problem of Chinese football stock reform, the root cause is still in the commercial value of the league.
However, after the 2021 season of "fragmented league", fans' expectations for the Chinese Super League have also decreased. The long-term inability to go to the scene to watch the game has also caused many fans to have a "reverse growth" in their watching habits. Offline, the former Chinese Super League is "unique" at home. Online, only in terms of the quality of the game, the Chinese Super League has no advantage over the five major leagues.
If you want to reshape the business of the Chinese Super League, restarting the home and away games of the league is only the first step that must be done. As of now, this "first step" has only just been taken and has not landed. However, even after the Chinese Super League completed the restart of home and away games, there is still a long way to go from pulling business and driving youth training in all directions.
With the withdrawal of investors, in addition to the disappearing echelons, teenagers without the ball, players who are owed wages, fans who are far away from the stadium, and the continued sluggish investment expectations of the capital world – this is not only the root cause of the difficulty of local club stock reform, but also difficult to be easily "cured" over time.
Note: The images used in this article are from the Internet