Chinese football in 2021 seems to have only two key words. One is the "World Preliminary Round" and the other is "Survival". Putting aside the Chinese men's football team for the time being, the fragmented Chinese Super League Has deepened with the deepening of the season, and many teams have once again fallen into the danger of survival. Guangzhou, Chongqing, Qingdao, Hebei... No matter how long this team has been in Chinese football and how brilliant results it has achieved, from the day when the bubble of Chinese professional football bursts, their future is bound to be uncertain. Hebei has become the most exposed Chinese Super League team in recent times, on the grounds that this team that once boasted of winning the AFC Champions League in the Chinese Super League is now unable to pay salaries and pay utility bills because of financial difficulties, and from the first team to the echelon, it is necessary to face the possibility of long-term leave. And this so-called vacation is likely to be another form of goodbye.
The phenomenon of dissolution and bankruptcy caused by the difficulty of professional team operation is accompanied by the high commercialization of football, which is not uncommon in recent years. Teams such as Parma and Chievo in Italy, as well as Derby County, which have struggled in the Championship this season, are examples. Even a top tycoon like Barca can fall into a debt crisis due to poor management. However, it is rare for a large number of teams like the Chinese Super League to owe wages and even face an existential crisis. In Asia, the Japanese J-League is recognized as a highly professional, well-branded, healthy league, but even such a league has emerged a team in crisis due to poor management, which is torii Sand Rock, where Torres once played.
Know the pain of dissolution
The vast majority of Chinese fans' knowledge of Tosu Sand Rock may have originated from the addition of Fernando Torres in 2018. The arrival of the former Spanish Golden Boy has brought the unseen Japanese team in Saga Prefecture to life. This statement is actually not an exaggeration, because Tosu Sand Rock really has no sense of existence in the history of the J-League. They only joined J-League in 1999, and before that they were called "Mirai Tosu", a small team that only entered the JFL (then the sub-league) from the local league in 1993.
At that time, the sponsor of the team was the educational institution pjm Japan. The U.S.-based company sponsored Tosu from 1987 until the team disbanded in 1997. As for why it was disbanded, the reason is simple - no money. After being promoted to the JFL, Tosu was a strong team, when Japanese football was just professionalized, PJM was ambitious, bringing in the younger brother of the king Maradona (and even promising to invite the old Malay Japan to play after the team was promoted), Stephen Donta, who represented Cameroon in the 1994 World Cup, and a number of veteran Stars in Japan. However, the plan could not keep up with the changes, and the team was only one step away from the top flight for four consecutive seasons from 1993 to 1996.
The continuous investment resulted in the team's majority shareholder PJM accumulating a huge debt of up to 1 billion 43 million yen, and at the end of 1996, after the failure of the fourth promotion, PJM announced its withdrawal. The main company that runs the team lost the sponsorship of the major shareholders, and it is difficult to continue to be close to Saga Prefecture, and the team eventually decided to disband. Fortunately, more than 50,000 local people signed the petition in exchange for the team's opportunity to participate in the 1997 League Cup. During this period, the Saga Prefectural Football Association registered the non-profit team "Tosu Sand rock", which was legalized in 1998, inherited to Thesu Mirai, and joined the J-League in 1999.
It can be seen that this ill-fated team knows what kind of disaster financial difficulties will bring to the team. But, nearly 20 years after his rebirth, why is Tosu once again facing financial difficulties and a dissolution crisis?
Why owe $2 billion?
J1 league qualification is not easy to come by for Tosu, and in the early 2000s, due to the weak foundation of the team and the lack of financial resources, it was already very difficult to barely maintain a place in the lower league. After 2004, the team's situation improved, and in 2011, South Korean coach Yoon Kyung-hwan successfully led the team to promotion, and the team stayed in the J1 League for many years, which is already the 10th year.
The team's crisis was exposed in April 2020, under the wave of the new crown epidemic, the main company of the team operation, Sagan Dreams, announced the financial report for the period 2019-2020, and the team's advertising contraction was serious, from 2.29 billion in the previous year to 810 million, with a fiscal deficit of up to 2 billion yen and two consecutive fiscal years of losses. According to the relevant regulations of the J League, once the team loses money for 3 consecutive years, it will lose its professional league qualification and be relegated to the semi-professional league JFL. The roof leaked in the overnight rain, the team's main sponsors withdrew one after another, and the team that lost the gold lord was uncertain. In view of this difficult situation, the person who has to be mentioned is Torres.
In the summer of 2018, the J-League ushered in a wave of superstars, with Iniesta and Torres joining. The former went to the wealthy Kobe Victory Ship, while Torres accidentally joined Tosu. However, the Spanish star did not bring substantial improvement to the team's performance, and the team remained in the middle and lower reaches for two consecutive seasons. What is even more bizarre is that Torres announced his retirement before the end of the 2019 season. This is like a thunderbolt in the sky for Tosu, because the small team that runs the team has spent a huge salary to invite Torres, and the team's 3 big sponsors have signed a bigger contract because of Torres's influence. After Torres left the team, the sponsors chose to leave, and overnight Tosu fell into a situation where he could not open the pot.
Does it have a familiar taste? Yes, our Chinese Super League used to be such an irrational investment.
The J League team itself does not have a large-scale culture of burning money, and Tosu has always been small since he was promoted to J1 in 2011, and the team's performance and the size of the operating company are originally incompatible with torso-stars of Torres's level. However, President Minoru Takehara, who is in charge of the team's operations, chose a high-risk business approach, emulating the wealthy Kobe Victory Ship and began to use high-tech to attract top foreign players and former Japanese internationals to join, hoping to improve the team's performance in this way, but the likes of Torres (a senior star) and Yumeso Kanazaki (a second-rate former international) simply could not take the team to the next level. When he first signed with Torres, Takehara offended the local sponsors and businesses that had supported the operation of the team, resulting in the club ending up alone.
Since its inception, the J League has placed great emphasis on the policy of localization, and in the equity of many teams, local enterprises and the government have occupied a pivotal position, which makes the team's regionality very strong. And as mentioned above, torisu this team had a precedent of poor management in that year, and being able to stay in the J League is the result of the joint efforts of local supporters, president Takehara's "riot operation", not only did not improve the team's performance, but also made everyone feel betrayed, it can be said that this move is very bad.
Can Tosu be reborn?
After the East Window incident, the management centered on Takehara stepped down, and the team's operating company formed a temporary board of directors, and their goal was only one - to reverse the team's continuous losses and retain the team's professional league qualification. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the financial deterioration of Tosu Club, but the danger is also an opportunity, and it is precisely because of the COVID-19 pandemic that J-League has given some leniency to teams that have lost money for 3 consecutive years, which has given Tosu enough time to fight for his right to survive.
In the end, the Tosu Club needed local businesses to save it. In June 2020, Kumitsu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a major pharmaceutical company in Saga Prefecture, became the team's special sponsor and injected 100 million yen to help the team gain space for reconstruction. Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical is not a small white in the sports circle, in the Japanese women's volleyball v league, the company has sponsored a team, but also sponsors women's golf professional competitions for many years, it can be said that the experience is also quite rich, at this time the choice to stay in Tosu Sand Rock is the result of careful consideration. In addition, the club has drastically reduced salaries by up to 1.2 billion yuan, and by vigorously promoting the team's youth players, under the leadership of South Korean coach Kim Myung-hui, it is ranked 7th with five rounds of the league left this season, which has to be said to be a remarkable achievement.
All that remains is to do their best to know the destiny, and the Tosu club hopes to reverse the financial deficit in this way, in exchange for the qualification to stay in the J League. But in the end, when we look at these teams in the Chinese Super League, I am afraid that they can only be described as powerless to return to heaven, which is overwhelming.
Text/Supine Braces - Yangyuan Zhang