In 1994, Chinese football entered the era of professionalization, and a football boom surged in the land of Shenzhou, and it seems that in the blink of an eye, Chinese football can sail away with the east wind of professionalization...
Seeing that nearly thirty years have passed, Chinese football has not only not risen, but has fallen to a trough that could not be imagined at that time. Although the various tumultuous operations of the Chinese Football Association have played a huge negative role, is the professionalization of Chinese football the right move? What exactly is the professional league that the whole world is playing? Find a company to pay the salaries of the team members is called professionalization? A professional team with sponsorship is a club?
The most typical professional league in world football, that is, the system that is common in Europe and the United States, is generally like this:
At first, a large number of football fans were happy with the club chart of the club, and slowly, everyone felt that the game of the disparity in strength was unhappy, which formed the league classification, and each team could always compete with the opponent of their own level in the dynamic balance of "strong and weak and relegated". At the same time, the club is rooted in the community, continuously providing football leisure and education to the residents of the community, while also gaining the goodwill of the residents, and turning this goodwill into tangible financial support through appropriate business practices.
When this goodwill and support is enough to support the players in the team to take this as a profession, a professional team is born. A league made up of such professional teams that can rely on supporters to survive is a true professional league.
Among the above factors, what has been the professionalization of Chinese football? Obviously, the answer is: almost nothing. China's professional football league has metamorphosed from the original national system, the mass base is pitiful, and the economic support of fans is impossible to talk about. Of course, the pyramid of a sound professional league system is indispensable – amateur and lower leagues are almost "zero".
Therefore, the professionalization of Chinese football has been from the beginning a high-rise building built on the beach, with an oxygen tube inserted in the marathon runners. Where do players come from? The national system has cultivated sports teams. Where do the economic benefits come from? The government came through a blood transfusion from the club owner. In the vast world, what legitimate profession is completely dependent on the rewards and blood transfusions of others? To put it mildly, today's Chinese professional football league is a blood-sucking ant lying on the body of Chinese society, dying once it is out of nature.
To adhere to the professional path, in fact, there is no way to do anything, but it needs to endure a long period of pain. The real professionalization is the professionalization of the club's self-financing and the professionalization of making money by relying on the fans to win the game. UEFA has long been in front of the pearl jade, a set of fiscal fairness bills have been pressed down, forcing all clubs to achieve financial income - you can sell ten million tickets, or pull ten million sponsorships, you can spend ten million for club expenses; if you can't sell, you can feel free to find some low prices or even free teams! With the recent reputation of Chinese football as "thunderous", after a few years, there will naturally be no longer a problem of excessive salaries for players, and unpaid wages will no longer become a major problem. Of course, the price of this must be a mess of international performance for a long time - but this mess is really a mess, a child raised by Chinese fans themselves, rather than a "freak" raised by many non-market behavior transfusions.
If you are reluctant to such a slippery slope, there is also a trick: completely return to the previous era of the national system, and return the full authority of talent cultivation, training and competition to the sports authorities, although it is not so lively, but the Chinese football under the national system is also the second-rate level in Asia, how not to mix to such a point as it is now. Of course, it is difficult to say whether the sports authorities are willing to bear such a large pressure, after all, the number of football players is extremely long and it is particularly difficult to produce results, which is not very popular under the national system.
The worst road, of course, is still hanging on the "professional" sheep's head to sell "four different" dog meat. The competitive performance is full of complaints, the social foundation continues to shrink, and in the end, this table's originally beautiful and delicious feast has become a water tank for people to hate dogs, and everyone has no need to eat, that is miserable!
Text/Hubei Daily reporter Guo Xiaoming
Photo: Xinhua News Agency