"The annual salary of domestic players in the first team of the Chinese Super League shall not exceed 5 million yuan before tax, the average annual salary shall not exceed 3 million yuan before tax, and the annual salary of foreign aid shall not exceed 3 million euros before tax. The annual expenditure of Chinese Super League clubs shall not exceed 600 million yuan..."
At the special governance work meeting of the Chinese Football Association Professional League held on the 14th, various new policies that have attracted much attention from the outside world finally landed.
Screenshot of the Chinese Football Association announcement
From last year's 10 million pre-tax maximum salary for domestic players to 5 million pre-tax maximum salary this year.
Under the New Deal of the Football Association, the continuous "braking" of Chinese football, this time can be regarded as completely out of the road of gold and yuan.
Of course, since the newly introduced salary limit policy is aimed at newly signed contracts, a small number of tens of millions of old contracts will still exist in recent years.
However, since you have driven off the road of gold and yuan, which is slammed on the accelerator, it means that there is no turning back. In the future, the carefully calculated "hard days" will inevitably be the mainstream.
To a certain extent, this is the inevitable way for the development of Chinese football.
In recent years, Jinyuan football has indeed given the domestic league a "prosperous" picture, but behind the prosperity, there are many flashy irrational inputs.
Soon some veteran clubs and civilian teams have been unable to keep up with the rhythm, and are going into the abyss in the deformed survival of the fittest.
In the first half of this year, the Chinese Professional Football League experienced a wave of club withdrawals.
Image source: Screenshot from the official website of the Chinese Football Association
Compared with the policy of 10 million pre-tax maximum salaries for domestic players and 12 million pre-tax maximum salaries for domestic players introduced last year, the salary limit introduced by the Chinese Football Association this year is undoubtedly even greater. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as a "strong man breaking his wrist".
According to the withdrawal of as many as 16 football clubs at the beginning of this year, it is indeed a point where they have to bravely take this step. If the gold dollar bubble is not drastically curbed, a large number of teams will be on the verge of collapse.
In the final analysis, highly professional football is not only a competitive sport, it also has commercial attributes. Under the super high investment cost, the domestic club's own revenue capacity is very limited, which is obviously an unhealthy phenomenon.
Screenshot of Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club's 2019 season financial report.
According to the 2019 season financial report released by Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club in April this year, the club’s annual cost and expenses reached 2.892 billion yuan, with a total income of 948 million yuan and a loss of 1.94 billion yuan.
The cost is so high, a large part of the reason is the salary of foreign aid and domestic players.
In a previous statistics, the labor costs of domestic Chinese Super League teams in 2016 accounted for 67% of total expenditures.
The Chinese Football Association announced a set of data at today's meeting: the average salary expenditure of the Super League club in the 2019 season is 1.177.9 billion yuan.
Among them, the average income of domestic players is 5.535669 million yuan, the average income of foreign aid is 58.47 million yuan, the total income of domestic players is 2.25698 billion yuan, and the total income of foreign aid is 3.74209 billion yuan.
According to a previous statistics from a foreign authoritative organization, the average annual salary of a Chinese Super League player in 2019 was US$1.207 million, second only to the top five European leagues in football.
But under high treatment, whether it is the level of players or their own commercial value, the gap compared with the players of the five major European leagues is obvious.
Screenshot of Football Association announcement
The major goal of the salary reduction policy introduced by the Football Association is to reduce the labor costs of the clubs.
In addition to the pre-tax maximum salary of 3 million euros for foreign aid and 5 million yuan for domestic players, the new regulations also require an average salary of 3 million yuan for domestic players in the first-team clubs.
In other words, if there are 25 domestic players in the first team, the labor cost of each club's domestic players is up to 75 million yuan, plus about 10 million euros in foreign aid labor costs, the labor cost is up to 150 million yuan.
After deducting the bonus expenditure, each club is away from the "spending cap" of 600 million yuan in a single season, and there is still 300 to 400 million yuan free. Each club can use these funds for youth training and women's football according to their financial resources.
Compared with the previous expenditure structure, this is undoubtedly a lot more healthy and reasonable.
The New Deal also has clear requirements on the amount of bonuses.
However, it is foreseeable that after club spending has fallen sharply, a large number of high-level foreign aid will be lost.
Super foreign aids such as Paulinho, Oscar, and Talisca are obviously unlikely to receive a salary of 3 million euros before tax.
As they leave one after another, the Super League will return to the era of practical foreign aid, and it is inevitable that there will be less appreciation and insufficient attraction.
However, the return of the league to rationality will ultimately be the situation that Chinese football will face sooner or later. If this unhealthy business method continues, the impact by then is likely to be far greater than the current pain.
In 15 games this season, he scored 9 goals and contributed 3 assists.
Chongqing Contemporary captain Kaldeck (first from left) is a representative of practical foreign aid in the Super League.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Super League/IC photo
In its realization stage, there are many practical foreign aids with outstanding performances in the Super League, such as Chongqing Contemporary’s Kaldeck, Wuhan Zall’s Evra, Shijiazhuang Yongchang’s foreign aid Matthews, and Dalian’s two new Swedish aid Larsson this season. He and Danielson, including Fernando, the "little motorcycle" who has become a naturalized national football player, are deeply loved by local fans. Their devotion to the game and integration into China far exceeds that of some big-name foreign aids.
Of course, the foundation of the league is still Chinese players after all. If one day domestic players in scarce positions are no longer hard to find, and exaggerated bidding is no longer needed to buy, there will naturally be no "bubble" in the professional league, and it will not take another year. A year of similar New Deal to regulate.
When domestic players can support the appearance of the league and ensure the viewing of the league, they will not rely so much on super foreign aid.
It is hoped that more funds can be invested in the youth training after the reduction. Those who play football and the hard-working grassroots coaches are the hope and future of Chinese football.
(Author Bian Liqun)