China News Service Client Beijing, December 15 (Bian Liqun) "In 1994, the Chinese team ranked about 40th in the world. Today, 26 years later, Chinese football has fallen to 75th. Chinese men's football teams at all levels, They have been absent from world competitions at all levels for nearly 15 to 20 years."
"Jinyuan football is eroding the body of healthy football. The average investment of Chinese clubs is more than three times that of the J League and more than ten times that of the K League. These figures are shocking. Are our conscience dead?" The Chinese Football Association held on the 14th At the league special governance meeting, the speech of the Chairman of the Football Association Chen Xuyuan was contemplative.
Data map: Chen Xuyuan, Chairman of the Chinese Football Association.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Football Association
Perhaps at first glance these words are a bit fierce, but combined with the popularity of the golden yuan and the serious bubble in recent years, for the domestic professional football league, which is already a castle in the sky, this is more like a call when the horse is reined from the cliff. The people of football send a clear signal-Chinese football has reached a time when it has to change.
In fact, Chinese football has always been without change. It changes every year, and there will be a big change every few years.
The New Deals are different each year. Among them are decisions that are not in line with the laws of football, and there are also highly targeted and effective reforms.
But how effective, most of them, the status quo has already given the answer.
Screenshot of the Football Association New Deal
This enhanced version of the salary limit and the neutralization of the club name can be regarded as a relatively large reform of the Chinese Football Association in recent years. It is also a milestone and a turning point for Chinese football.
For example, in terms of salary limits, the Chinese Football Association stipulates that 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 the Super League club shall not exceed 600 million yuan.
This is a great lightening of the burden for Chinese Super League clubs that have spent more than one billion yuan or more in recent years.
Regarding the neutralization of the club name, the Chinese Football Association stipulates that the name shall not contain the name, trade name or brand name of the club shareholder, shareholder-related party or actual controller, etc. The new club name should be healthy and civilized, reflecting regional traditional culture, humanistic spirit, and club philosophy .
Data Map: Big-name foreign players in the Super League.
Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
Looking back, in 2018, the Chinese Football Association introduced the "Four Caps" policy, which imposed restrictions on club spending, investment, losses and player salaries.
In 2019, the Football Association has proposed that clubs need to complete the name neutralization reform before the start of the 2021 season.
Therefore, it is not so much that this enhanced version of the salary limit and the neutralized name of the club is the New Deal, it is more of the continuation and specific implementation of the previous New Deal, and now it has come to the node of the implementation of the New Deal.
From this point of view, this year's New Deal and last year's New Deal for domestic players with a pre-tax maximum salary of 10 million yuan are both continuous. They will slow Chinese football off the road to gold and yuan through slow braking.
Data map: Guangzhou Evergrande won the eighth champion of the Chinese Super League in the 2019 season.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Chen Jimin
There are two sides to everything. For example, the Jinyuan football, which is now being separated, although the domestic clubs have paid a lot of money, it has also made Chinese football a "false fire", but it has indeed gained a lot of popularity, so that fans can see it at home Big-name star.
Guangzhou Evergrande's two AFC championships are a breakthrough for Chinese football in the intercontinental arena at the club level.
The Football Association’s New Deal also has two sides. On the one hand, the salary limit will cause big-name players to leave one after another. On the other hand, after the club has changed its name, it will inevitably be unaccustomed to the situation. The team and fans are emotionally difficult to accept in a short time. These are the pains that must be experienced under reform.
However, in the throes, it is undeniable that the general direction of the Chinese Football Association's New Deal has positive guiding significance, reducing costs through salary cuts, and neutralizing club names as a new starting point for league professionalization and club commercialization.
Screenshot of Youth Training Outline
Coupled with the youth training outline issued by the Chinese Football Association not long ago, the direction of Chinese football is actually very clear, which is to save resources, open up the stream and develop youth training.
In fact, similar ideas have existed as early as the A-A era, but along the way, Chinese football seems to have a fluke mentality. It has experienced the extremely short-sighted and utilitarian policy of canceling relegation and giving way to the national football team, as well as the Jin Yuan era. After a series of tossing rationally and seeking shortcuts, Chinese football, which has not been picked up, is finally expected to return to the most practical way.
For example, “the club used fraudulent, deliberate concealment, etc., to sign'yin and yang contracts' with players or to pay compensation in violation of regulations. Once found, the club will be deprived of the game results of the current season and will be relegated to a lower level league in the next year; Extremely severe measures such as imposing a 24-month ban on the competition can be seen in the unprecedented determination and strength of the competent authorities.
Data map: On November 14, 2019, in the World Cup Asian Top 40, the national football team lost 1:2 to Syria in the away game, and the qualifying situation was suddenly severe.
Image source: Visual China
I hope this is the beginning of Chinese football on the right track, rather than the time when it was overthrown a few years later, and people remembered it again in vain.
There are actually many rules that Chinese football has set before, but it is more important to implement them when there are rules.
Does it mean one set does another?
Do you want to talk about exceptions everywhere?
Will the whip be raised high and dropped gently?
Are there any hidden worries about "the big can't fail" and "the law doesn't blame the public"?
Everything remains to be observed by the outside world, and it needs outside supervision.
Also on December 14, the first presentation of the "Chinese Football Association Youth Training Outline" outside Beijing kicked off in Wuhan. The vice chairman of the Football Association Gao Hongbo said that coaches need to focus on talent training, not performance as the only thing. Pursuit or highest pursuit.
We are very pleased to see that the consolidation of grassroots work is steadily advancing, and only by abandoning utilitarianism in Chinese football can people have the opportunity to see more hope.
But don’t forget to check out the national football team, which is still struggling in the top 40 after winning the lottery, the Olympic preliminaries all lost to the bottom of the group, the national youth who missed the Asian Youth Championship for the first time in 26 years, and failed to pass the Asian Championship. Fewer preliminaries... the situation is still very grim. Chinese football at a low ebb needs hard work, brick by brick, to change its backwardness.
With rules, more implementation, less empty talk, more hard work, only in this way can Chinese football have a future.
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