Chinese football circle: the number one in the football association changed 6 people in 13 years Most of them were replaced as soon as they figured out the situation
"Let those who know football manage football" is ambiguous, and playing football does not mean that you know football and can manage football well. It is better to discuss this than to face reality, and let a leadership team serve two terms, that is, eight to ten years, in order to avoid the embarrassment of "accompanying the leader to pay tuition" and understanding the situation and then the term of office will expire. In particular, the president of the Japan-Korea Football Association has served more than 16 years to have the current football take-off, and Song Kai's career has accompanied the rise of the Chinese professional league, he has personally experienced the shareholding reform of Liaozu, and has a certain understanding of all levels of fans, especially the graduation thesis that year is "Analysis of the Phenomenon of Contemporary Chinese Fans".
With the convening of the 12th member congress of the Chinese Football Association, a new leadership team of the Chinese Football Association has been formed, Li Yingchuan, deputy director of the State General Administration of Sport and member of the party group, as the secretary of the party committee, Song Kai as the new chairman of the football association, Sun Wen, Yuan Yongqing, Yang Xu and Xu Jiren were elected as vice chairmen, Yuan Yongqing concurrently served as the secretary-general, and a new executive committee composed of 20 people was also elected. How do you view this new leadership team? People from all walks of life stand from different angles, and with the information they know and hold, of course, they will have different views and opinions. But in any case, in the next cycle, Chinese football will be fully launched under the guidance of the new team, where will it eventually go? It is difficult to reach a definitive conclusion in a short period of time.
The new president of the Football Association, Song Kai
The misunderstanding of kicking and managing
"Let those who know football manage football!" This is one of the focus topics that has been discussed by the outside world for many years, and "layman leading insider" is even considered to be a fundamental problem in Chinese football. However, this sentence itself is actually ambiguous, what is "understanding football"? Having played football and been a football player must mean that you know football and can manage football well? The answer is probably not necessarily.
The so-called insider, who has been a professional football player, playing football may be an insider, but it is not necessarily an insider to become a football coach after retirement, after all, coaches and athletes are two completely different professions. Moreover, over the years, it is clear how the outside world criticizes Chinese local coaches. And changing to a football manager is not necessarily an expert, after all, it spans two completely different fields. Of course, after retiring professional players from further education and all-round learning, they will undoubtedly be more conducive to becoming professional football managers. However, with the current cultural foundation and cultural quality of Chinese players, it is not easy to achieve this leap.
This is actually very reminiscent of Chinese basketball, which is almost "brother and brother" with Chinese football. Yao Ming's status as a superstar of world basketball goes without saying. But since becoming the head of the China Blue Association, it cannot be said that he has not worked hard, and he has also given up many personal interests in the hope of raising Chinese basketball to new heights. But it backfired. This seems to show from one side that Yao Ming, who was born as an athlete, did not engage in management work after retiring from sports as the outside world imagined. No one would say that Yao Ming doesn't understand basketball, but reality tells us bloodily: to manage basketball well, it's not just about knowing the ball, everything is involved, which is far more complicated than the rapid changes on the court.
Back to Chinese football itself, so far, Chinese football may not find a retired athlete who can have influence and appeal in the world like Yao Ming, even football managers and leaders like Nian Weisi or Wang Junsheng are difficult to find. As a result, it has become a paradox to let the management of football who understand football become a paradox in Chinese football at this stage. So one of the practical solutions is to graft managers from other sports within the system onto the football program.
In the "seven-person" team of the new Chinese Football Association, except for Sun Wen, who came from playing football, all others seem to have nothing to do with football, so it is easy to be labeled as a "layman leader and insider" by the outside world. But after all, managing football itself is "using the right people" and "using good people", and dealing with people from all sides, rather than doing everything and playing football on the field. Moreover, although the sports are different, the basic laws of competitive sports are the same. Several of the new vice presidents have served as deputy leaders of their management centers in other sports projects of the General Administration of Sports before joining the Chinese Football Association, and from a management point of view, they are already "masters", and their management skills may even far exceed those of retired football players.
Relative stability is more important
Of course, in this process, the most severe reality for the new team is how to understand and master the laws and particularities of football as soon as possible. A reality that must be faced is that since Wang Junsheng, Chinese football has experienced nine main responsible persons in the past 20 years, especially after the first wave of "anti-gambling and anti-gang" that began at the end of 2009, the newly elected Song Kai has been the sixth top person in charge of the Chinese Football Association in 13 years. Therefore, "accompanying leaders to pay tuition" is a basic development trajectory of Chinese football for so many years. When you are almost familiar with and understand the situation and are ready to use your hands, the term of office will expire and it will be time for a replacement. As a result, Chinese football has been repeating itself in such a strange circle.
Because of this, instead of sticking to "managing the ball that knows the ball" and "managing the ball that does not understand the ball", it is better to face the reality and let a leadership team serve for two terms relatively stably, that is, eight to ten years. This may be a more realistic management approach to Chinese football at this stage. After a long period of success, I am afraid that we first need a relatively stable leadership group. Only when the team is stable can it really calm down and consider the development of Chinese football for a relatively long period of time, and only then can it really draw a blueprint to the end. What's more, the cultivation of outstanding youth football players is also a long process, which takes eight to ten years, and the short-term success can only produce some inferior and incomplete products, just as today's society widely criticizes players for "unsolid basic skills" and "not even passing the ball well". If you want to change, you can only rely on time to polish. It's the same for managers.
Moreover, while we are all envious of the development of football in neighboring Korea and Japan, we cannot ignore two figures, namely Jung Mongjun and Saburo Kawabuchi. Jung Mongjun served as president of the Korean Football Association for 16 years from 1993 to 2009, and Saburo Kawabuchi became president of the Japan Professional League from 1991 to the president of the Japan Football Association in 2002, until 2008, a total of 17 years, the reality must be admitted that whether it is Korean football or Japanese football, under the command of these two leaders, the football of the two countries has developed and changed by leaps and bounds, laying a solid foundation for today's Korean and Japanese football.
The professional leagues of China, Japan and South Korea can be said to have started almost at the same time, but in 30 years, South Korea and Japan have already left the Chinese Super League far behind. (Note: Although the Korean professional league claims to have started in 1983, it actually underwent a major change in 1995, fully learning from and moving closer to the Japanese professional league.) During the tenure of Zheng Mengzhun and Saburo Kawabuchi, the heads of the Chinese Football Association have changed five people, from Nian Weisi to Wang Junsheng, to Yan Shiduo, to Xie Yalong, and then to Nanyong.
The historical lesson of the development of Chinese football is that "we never learn the lessons of history". Then, in the face of the devastated Chinese football, whether we can learn a lesson this time is probably far more realistic than discussing issues such as "insiders" and "laymen".
Thirty years ago
The reality of Chinese football determines that the new team members are sitting in the "crater", especially the newly elected chairman Song Kai, who will be "digging the ground" by public opinion at any time to launch various revelations. Therefore, it certainly takes some courage and courage to be willing to accept such a challenge. However, when the outside world is talking about whether Song Kai is a "layman", perhaps his experiences more than 30 years ago will help the current work.
30 years ago, professional leagues emerged in Chinese football as a new thing, and the enthusiasm of Chinese people for football was ignited on a large scale for the first time. At that time, Song Kai was only a master's student at Beijing Sport University, and his graduation thesis was "Analysis of the Phenomenon of Fans in Contemporary China". In order to complete the thesis, Song Kai had the same experience as many crazy fans, riding a bicycle for more than half a year, riding all the way from Beijing to Shenyang to conduct research and chat with fans, because there was no money when he was a student, he lived in a reception for more than 10 yuan, and even directly set up a tent to sleep. To some extent, Song Kai is quite clear and familiar with the current situation of fans of all walks of life in China.
It was also in the process of that research and visit that Song Kai met Zhang Tongpo, the first person in Chinese football to propose the concept of "joint-stock club". In December 1995, Liaoning Football (Shares) Club, the first football club in Chinese football to operate with a market-oriented mechanism, was officially born. Although Liaozu Club was disqualified by the Chinese Football Association in May 2020 for various reasons, and Liaozu ceased to exist, it can never be denied that the establishment of Liaozu Club was an epoch-making event in Chinese football. It is not known that Song Kai has personally witnessed the establishment of the Liaozu Joint-Stock Club, and many documents have been drafted by him.
It must be admitted that 30 years ago, the "shareholding system" of football clubs was relatively advanced and even relatively advanced, which was a form that was more scientific and reasonable at that time, and conformed to economic laws that was more conducive to promoting the development of sports and football, and was more in line with the general trend of social development at that time. On the one hand, the National Structural Reform Commission at that time had clearly proposed that the shareholding system was the direction of reform of large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises; On the other hand, at that time, football clubs in countries such as England and Italy were all joint-stock systems, and German clubs had begun to transition from "limited companies" to "joint-stock systems"; In Brazil, in the late 80s, even in the form of a law, it was stipulated that clubs established in Brazil must be joint-stock or not registered. But because it is a new thing, its growth is bound to be tortuous.
From scratch, from the unfortunate relegation to the return to A A, along the way, Song Kai is actually quite aware of what Liaozu has experienced in the process of development, so when Liaozu was disqualified by the Chinese Football Association three years ago, what kind of state of mind Song Kai, who was already the director of the Liaoning Sports Bureau, may only be clear to him, but in the face of various criticisms from the outside world, Song Kai chose to endure silently. But it was that experience that provided an idea for its subsequent successful reform in the Liaoning men's basketball team. Now facing the plight of Chinese professional football and professional football clubs, I believe that Song Kai also has his own unique opinions.
This may be an "advantage" of his current tenure as president of the Chinese Football Association, because his personal experience, which is unknown to the outside world, has never been experienced by previous FA leaders. Although more than 20 years have passed, from the founding of Liaoning Football Club to the cross-border success of Liaoning men's basketball team, it is obvious that it will help him to better deal with the current difficulties faced by Chinese professional football and professional football clubs after returning to Chinese football, especially the success of Liaoning men's basketball team, more with the power of society and mobilization of resources outside the sports world to help Liaoning Sports Bureau achieve the desired results, rather than relying solely on the sports system. Today, the problem encountered by Chinese football is precisely how to win more social forces to help Chinese football out of the predicament.
Looking back on a long period of time in the past, Chinese football originally had only one "power within the system", that is, the power within the sports system, but because there were no results, the relevant management departments were almost in a state of ignorance. Now, after the formation of the new leadership team, because almost all the members of the team come from the sports system, the power within the sports system will be significantly strengthened, and the current leaders of the State General Administration of Sports also attach great importance to the "three big balls".
In other words, the relationship between the General Administration and the Football Association will be closer and easier to form synergy, which will undoubtedly become another advantage of this FA team. Under such circumstances, how can the new team win the support of more other forces, especially social forces, to create a new situation for the development of Chinese football? This is a major test for the new team.