China News Service Client Beijing, April 10 (Bian Liqun) At a seminar on the afternoon of the 9th, domestic professional football clubs finally reached consensus on the issue of salary reduction. Although specific rules have not yet been introduced, after determining this general direction, there has been breakthrough progress in the long-disputed issue of salary cuts. In the context of the new policy of the Football Association in the past two years leading the clubs to reduce expenditures, this may have a large impact on the return of Chinese football to rationality in the future.
Chinese Football Association Announcement
The battle for pay cuts under the epidemic
In fact, the question of whether domestic teams should cut wages under the epidemic has been debated for a long time. According to some opinions, the capital of the Chinese employees is artificially high, and is not directly proportional to the performance, so the salary should have dropped. Coupled with the fact that investors ’operations are more or less affected by the epidemic, high-paid players should make concessions at this time to overcome the difficulties.
Another part of the view is that, unlike the European teams whose mid-term “stoppage of production” has resulted in salary cuts, the domestic football league is only a postponement of the new season. Each team has undergone winter training in the early stage. At present, most teams are also preparing for the battle. Work status, should not reduce pay. Moreover, the Super League team is not dependent on the income methods such as broadcasting and ticketing as much as the European team. It relies more on large amounts of blood transfusions by investors. Therefore, it will not cause income disruption due to the interruption of the league, which will lead to the survival crisis of the team.
It is worth mentioning that in this debate there are few public voices of clubs and players. After all, on this sensitive topic, no matter who stands up and speaks, it will "provoke a thousand waves". In the event that the Chinese Football Professional League has not yet been established, the Chinese Football Association can only play the leading role in the end, and organize club representatives to conduct seminars on this, and finally broke the "window paper" of salary reduction.
Wuhan Zall player Ai Zhibo once said that he did not support salary cuts.
How to drop it? It is important to treat people equally
According to the Football Association's announcement, the salary reduction cycle for each club from March 1 to the start of the league this season is the only rule after the current direction of salary reduction. The specific guidance in the salary reduction plan will have to wait for the Chinese Football Association to organize professional clubs, players, coach representatives, and legal professionals to work out and publish them.
From the point of view of the clubs that cut wages abroad, their respective standards are different. For example, Barcelona's salary was reduced by more than 70%, and Juventus players gave up 4 months of salary. In addition, Bayern chose to cut their salaries by 20%, Real Madrid cut their salaries by 10% to 20%, and the French Ligue 1 team, Amiens, who started the salary cut, reduced their salaries by 16%. Earlier media also said that FIFA has formulated a policy to reduce wages by 50%.
La Liga team Barcelona has announced that the first team players will receive a salary reduction of more than 70%.
Judging from the situation of domestic clubs, it is not likely to adopt a large salary cut like Barcelona and Juventus. More will still be based on their own conditions to set reasonable standards. For example, some teams have excessively high labor costs due to historical issues, and investors are currently not optimistic about their own operations, so they will set relatively high salary reduction standards within the appropriate range. If the club's own salary is more reasonable, and the investor can operate the club healthily, then it is possible to not reduce or reduce the salary. After all, the salary reduction is only the consensus and direction of the club representatives, and it is not mandatory for the time being.
However, regardless of whether the salary is reduced or not, equal treatment within the team will be an extremely necessary prerequisite. The Football Association's announcement also clearly stated: "In the case of full consultation between the club and the players, a unified salary reduction will be implemented." In this case, can the team break through the resistance and help foreign aid and return that occupy a large amount of salary expenditure? Reducing players' salary according to regulations will become the key. On the one hand, this is related to the team's internal solidarity and management, and it cannot allow domestic players who receive a salary reduction to suffer; on the other hand, after reducing the salary of foreign aid with an annual salary of tens of millions of euros, the effect of cost reduction will not only be more obvious , Can also reduce operational risks to a certain extent.
In addition, the protection of the bottom players in China A and China B is particularly important. It is still inconclusive as to when the 2020 season will restart, and during this "window period", the low income of them, whether they can maintain their lives after a salary cut is also a factor to be considered. You can't just cut your salary blindly and lose too much of the limited interests of these players.
Super foreign aid on the Chinese Super League are enjoying generous treatment. Data map: Guangzhou Evergrande foreign aid Talisca celebrates scoring a goal. China News Agency reporter Chen Jimin
Chinese football further bubble?
The topic of salary cuts has been around for a long time in Chinese football. Starting from 2018, the "Four Caps" policy issued by the Chinese Football Association has salary restrictions, stipulating the club's spending limit, loss limit, salary expense ratio and bonus limit.
At the end of last year, the Chinese Football Association issued a salary limitation order, which stipulates that the top salary of domestic players who have signed a contract with the club after November 20, 2019 will not exceed 10 million yuan, and the selection of the national team can increase by 20%. Foreign aid has been greatly tightened, stipulating that the annual salary after tax cannot exceed 3 million euros.
After the foreign aid policy has been greatly tightened, there will be few super foreign aid of the Hulk level in the Super League. The picture shows Hulk (left) driving the ball. Shen Haishe
According to statistics from foreign authoritative institutions, the average annual salary of Chinese Super League players in 2019 is 1.207 million US dollars, ranking 6th in the world football. Such a high level of treatment is indeed not directly proportional to the actual results, which is one of the reasons why most fans have strongly demanded a salary reduction. But objectively speaking, this figure is largely driven by super foreign aid.
Foreign football financial analysis website Finance Football data shows that in 2017 the world's top 20 paid players, half of the foreign aid in the Chinese Super League. In a 2016 statistic, the labor cost of the domestic Super League team accounted for 67% of the total expenditure, which was abnormal. In that year, the collective losses of the Super League clubs amounted to 3.9 billion yuan.
Statistics show that Shanghai-Hong Kong foreign aid Oscar ranked fourth in the 2017 world football salary list, behind Messi. The picture shows Oscar in the game.
Under the gold dollar, the joining of a large number of international stars has really enjoyed the fans and made the league more prosperous, but it is more like an unrealistic luxury. Continued subsistence will eventually bring hidden dangers to the long-term development of Chinese football At the beginning of this year, the withdrawal tide of as many as nine teams was one of the "complications".
The salary cuts under the epidemic have pierced this "window paper". Although it was a temporary measure during a specific period under a special period, he clearly conveyed that the Chinese football management has returned the Chinese professional league price system to its true value and attitude, which has indeed broken the bubble to a certain extent.
It is worth mentioning that the Football Association's announcement mentioned that clubs and investors generally face operational difficulties during the epidemic, and there is a strong voice about moderate burden reduction and reasonable salary reduction.
Combined with the downturn in the domestic transfer market at the beginning of this year, I am afraid that this salary reduction will be a major milestone in the return of Chinese football to rationality and de-foaming. Although the policy is temporary, the impact may be long-term. (Finish)