Ma Bangjie/Xinhua News Agency
After more than a year, the Chinese Football Association has frequently issued orders, and it always brings an urgent atmosphere of "storm is coming". On the 23rd, the Chinese football management agency issued two announcements on its official website, announcing the list of participating clubs in the third-tier leagues, and also announced the unprecedented 16 football clubs to be eliminated. 11 of the
16 clubs were disqualified from registration, and 5 companies voluntarily applied for withdrawal. causes them to leave the market the same cause: they run out of funds and cannot survive.
Freezing for three feet will not last a day. Among the 16 clubs, whether it is Tianjin Tianhai, the former upstart of the Chinese Super League who was lamented by the industry, or the Liaoning Football Club , the fundamental reason is that the past poor management and historical problems have been superimposed to this day, and finally the bitter fruit of bankruptcy. Some of these clubs are said to have been in debt in the previous few seasons. The Chinese Football Association strictly implements the access procedures this time, and the order must be trusted and the law must be implemented, which is worthy of recognition.
The "Notice on the Cancellation of the Registration Qualification of Related Professional Football Club " in two announcements issued by the Chinese Football Association on the 23rd is a document that strives to make people feel bitter.
The announcement ended with: "Here I hope that clubs at all levels will pay attention to long-term planning and rational operation, effectively protect and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of club players, coaches and staff, and promote professional football to gradually achieve sustainable development of ." This official document, which is more like a message, "gradually" shows the attitude of no longer being rushing for success, and "sustainable development" points out the goal of healthy survival.
It goes without saying that all professional football clubs in China face the problem of how to "survive healthily". Jinyuan football has exacerbated the dilemma. The COVID-19 epidemic that swept the world has pressed the "death" button for some clubs in advance, and also created time for the Chinese Football Association to deal with and solve problems.
"If these unsurvivable clubs are allowed to continue to participate in the league, their problems will become bigger and bigger like snowballs, and it will become more and more difficult to end. At the same time, it will bring unpredictable and uncontrollable threats to the health of the third-tier league." An industry insider said, "Excluding them is responsible for the future development of China's professional football."
Thousands of sails passed by the side of the sunken boat, and thousands of trees were springing in front of the sick tree. This season, the "death" of these clubs will help the floating bubble-like Chinese football professional league gradually get treatment, allowing other more dynamic clubs to have the opportunity to participate in professional events.
Insiders of the Chinese Football Association revealed that the Chinese Football Association will continue to introduce relevant measures to continue to squeeze the bubble for the highest-level Chinese Super League, while also creating conditions for the survival of low-level professional clubs. For example, in future access rules, it may no longer be required that Class B clubs must have at least four youth echelon teams of different ages.
This will also create opportunities for some of the 16 clubs who have the conditions to return to the professional league. There are many precedents in world football in this regard. For example, the Florence club in Serie A, whose original name was "Florence Football Association Club" (ACF Florence Club), went bankrupt in 2002. Two months later, the locals established the "Florence Football Association and Purple Florence Club". This long club name contains the original club name, which is intended to use the original club's brand and inherit the original club's fans. A year later, they spent money to buy back the copyrights of the original club's name and jersey pattern design, so ACF Florence returned to Italian football. The pretty "lily" in the Florence Club logo is the spiritual flower that unites the hearts of Florence and leads the souls of the locals.
If among the 16 Chinese clubs that have disappeared this season, there will be those who will return to professional football like Florence in the future, we hope that the equity structure of their clubs will be more reasonable, and the names will no longer contain the "corporate" factor, and will better gather local fans spiritually. In this way, they achieve rebirth and self-salvation.As designed by " Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football ", the existence of this new type of professional club will mark an improvement in the connotation of Chinese football.
This issue edited Zhou Yuhua
