Chen Xuyuan, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, revealed in an interview with the People's Daily recently that the establishment of the Chinese Football Professional League is being actively promoted. "We will do our best to strive for the establishment of the league within this year. The league next year will be operated by the professional league." After these talks, the candidate for the first chairman of the alliance immediately became a hot topic.
The concept of the Chinese Professional Football League began to be known to the outside world in 2015. In May 2016, the Chinese Football Association established the "Professional League Preparatory Group". At that time, Liu Jun, general manager of Jiangsu Suning, became the leader of the preparatory team. However, because the preparatory group and the Chinese Football Association have more differences in the positioning of the professional league since then, the establishment has been shelved.
At the beginning of January 2017, the preparatory working group meeting was held in Shanghai. The preparatory working group was led by Chen Xuyuan and Guangzhou R&F boss Zhang Li. Immediately after the Wuhan meeting in mid-January, the Chinese Football Association threw out a draft of its own "Chinese Professional Football League Constitution (Draft)" to solicit opinions from representatives of the Chinese Super League clubs. This Chinese Football Association version of the league charter obviously does not meet the expectations of most club investors, and it is quite different from the version of the charter designed by the professional league preparation team at that time. In desperation, the professional league that was scheduled to debut in the first quarter of 2017 was forced to shelve again.
Under the supervision of the deep reform team of the State Council, the Chinese Football Association restarted the professional league window in 2019. In June of that year, the professional league preparatory group was re-established. Guangzhou R&F, Dalian Yifang, Shandong Luneng and Henan Jianye entered the preparatory group to form a capable working group. Zhang Li, owner of Guangzhou R&F Club, served as the leader of the preparatory team. After that, investors from 12 Chinese Super League clubs including Evergrande, R&F, and Guoan jointly called for speeding up the establishment of professional leagues, and even reached a consensus.
Earlier, there was also news that Guangzhou R&F boss Zhang Lihui was the first chairman of the Chinese Football Professional League. However, there has been no new news after the professional league convener meeting.
Yesterday, when the topic of the Chinese Football Professional League was mentioned again, the popular candidate for the first chairman of the league was changed from the boss of R&F to Li Ming, the general manager of Guoan Club. But these news have no reliable sources and official confirmation.
Li Ming used to serve as the general manager of Dalian Albin Football Club, and in 2017 as the general manager of Guoan Club. As the chairman of a professional league, to participate in the operation and maintenance of the entire league, the candidate must know how to maximize the interests of investors and clubs.
