The functional departments of the Chinese Football Association will be reduced to 13 The third-level professional leagues will be operated by the league company
After the completion of the re-election in October this year, the Chinese Football Association has also accelerated the pace of internal organizational adjustment, and the specific plan has recently been approved by the higher-level management department. Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that the new Chinese Football Association will complete the internal institutional integration in accordance with the model of "13 departments + 2 companies + 1 base", and the original stadium department, strategic planning department and other departments and the "Football City Office" will be cancelled, and its original functions will be allocated to other departments. The Chinese Super League, the Chinese League A and the Chinese League B will most likely be operated by the professional league company in the future, and the company's name and specific functions are to be determined.
On October 16, the Chinese Football Association completed a new round of re-election, and the leadership of the Football Association with Song Kai as the chairman officially took office. Prior to this, domestic football was experiencing an anti-corruption storm. Many people, including Chen Xuyuan, the former chairman of the Chinese Football Association, have been taken away by relevant departments for investigation on suspicion of violating discipline and law, and are facing legal punishment. I have to say that at this moment, the Chinese Football Association is encountering unprecedented internal and external difficulties. How to straighten out the internal organization, so that all work can be carried out in an orderly manner, has become the first important task of the new leadership team of the Chinese Football Association.
Before this round of re-election, the Chinese Football Association set up its organizational structure in accordance with the "18+1+1+1" model, which means that the Football Association has 18 functional departments. The three "1s" refer to the Chinese Football Association's wholly-owned subsidiary Ford Bao Company, the Xianghe National Team Training Base and the Chinese Football Federation Preparatory Group (Chinese Super League Company). In addition, the internal management structure of the Football Association intersects with the relatively independent Office of the National Leading Group for Key Cities for Football Development (hereinafter referred to as the Football City Office).
In fact, after Chinese football entered the professional track in the 90s of the last century, the Chinese Football Association (including the former Football Management Center) experienced different degrees of adjustment or integration of its internal institutions whenever the leadership changed. For example, in 2010, after Wei Di became the director of the Football Management Center (vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association), he adjusted the internal organization model from the previous "6 departments and 1 team" to "7 departments", and the cancellation of the women's department by the Chinese Football Association at that time caused controversy. In 2011, after the Chinese women's football team lost the London Olympic preliminaries, the Football Association resumed the setting of the women's department. The repeated adjustment of the internal organizational structure has also exacerbated the chaos of industry management to a certain extent, and some ridiculous and contrary measures have been introduced.
It is worth noting that since May 2020, the Chinese Football Association has begun to consciously streamline its internal organization, because in the two years before that, the Football Association has set up as many as 28 functional departments. It is precisely because the division of functions of various departments is too detailed that there is a problem of business intersection or even overlap between multiple departments, which aggravates the complexity of the implementation of related work and affects work efficiency. The Chinese Football Association promoted this round of internal institutional adjustment, which is also to improve the efficiency and quality of business work.
It is understood that according to the plan, the Chinese Football Association will have 13 functional departments in the future, namely party affairs, discipline inspection and supervision, media public relations, comprehensive, foreign affairs, national team management, youth training, women's football, referees, competitions, technology, social football, member associations, etc. The original futsal and beach soccer department, stadium department, information management department, finance department, administrative personnel department, strategic planning department and other departments will be abolished, and their original functions will be allocated to social football, technology, comprehensive and other departments respectively.
In addition, in addition to the Fufubao Company and the Xianghe base, the question of where the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation will go in the future has also attracted the attention of various professional football clubs. It is understood that in the case of whether the Chinese Football Federation can finally be established, the operation of the Chinese Super League, the Chinese Super League, the Chinese League and the Chinese League B will most likely be operated by the newly established "professional league company". In other words, the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation may face a name change and participate in the operation of the third-level professional league in the nature of a "company". Prior to this, in the process of communication between the Chinese Football Association and relevant parties, it had proposed the establishment of a "China Professional Football League Operating Company" or "China Football Professional League United Company". However, the final naming of the "company" and how to stipulate its functions and the scope of rights and interests still need to be further discussed by all parties.
It has to be said that the Chinese Football Association, which has entered a new cycle, should take rebuilding the image of Chinese football and industry management departments and boosting the morale of Chinese football as the top priority in the next step, whether it is to improve the internal institutional setup or launch improvement measures.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Yun