Jinyuan football has returned to small costs in the past?

　　The Football Association's new policy of "limiting investment and limiting salary" aims to uproot the "Golden Dollar Football". Can Chinese football return to the track of healthy development?

　　After the FA Cup final between Shandong Luneng and Jiangsu Suning this Saturday, the Chinese football season will come to an end.

It's not just the 2020 season that ended. The Chinese Football Association officially announced the "most stringent salary limit" this month, which means that the Super League will completely bid farewell to the "Golden Yuan Era".

　　The Chinese Super League team that has created a brilliant career in the AFC Champions League will experience a period of pain. After losing the reputation and flow of big-name foreign players, Chinese football will return to the old problem of laying the foundation and improving its own capabilities.

After going around a long way, the problem to be solved cannot be avoided. After bursting the golden dollar football bubble, how will the Super League write a new chapter in the "small era" (return to low-cost operations)?

New Deal

Club money tightening under salary limit

　　Compared with relatively modest measures such as the “salary cap” introduced in 2018 and the requirement for club spending to decrease year by year, the Chinese Football Association announced on December 14 at the China Football Professional League’s special governance work conference that the “limit investment and salary limit” new policy has changed. Is strict.

　　In the professional league club financial agreement indicator notice issued by the Football Association, corresponding provisions have been made on various financial indicators such as club expenditures, player annual salaries, and club bonuses.

From the 2021 to 2023 season, the total investment of the Super League clubs per season shall not exceed 600 million yuan; the maximum salary of Chinese Super League local players is 5 million yuan before tax, and the average salary of first-line local players does not exceed 3 million yuan; the maximum salary of foreign aid is 300 before tax Million euros, and the total foreign aid remuneration does not exceed 10 million euros before tax.

In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the New Deal, the Football Association has issued corresponding penalties. Once the "yin and yang contract" is found, the club involved will be immediately deprived of the results of the current season and will be demoted in the next year. The players involved will be suspended for 24 months.

　　These are unimaginable figures in the "Golden Yuan Era".

According to relevant statistics, the spending of the Chinese Super League clubs in the previous few seasons in the winter transfer window alone was enough to shock the international football world.

In the 2016 winter window, the Super League club set an investment of more than 300 million euros; the winter transfer period investment in 2017 and 2018 was 233 million euros and 263 million euros respectively; the 2019 season investment for the same period was 218 million euros.

Affected by policies such as the "salary cap", the 2020 winter window has been called the "most deserted transfer market" in recent years. The total investment of Chinese Super League clubs has fallen precipitously to about 28 million euros, which is only higher than 2011. 24.29 million euros in the same period of the year.

　　"Our club's investment is more than three times that of the Japanese J-League clubs and more than 10 times that of the Korean K-League. Player salaries are 5.8 times that of the J-League and 11.7 times that of the K-League. These figures are shocking." Chen Xuyuan said in an interview with the media.

It can be predicted that after the more stringent New Deal takes effect, it is expected that the total investment in the 2021 winter window will continue to show a sharp downward trend.

trend

Superstars evacuating big-name foreign teachers are also difficult to stay

　　After squeezing out the "Gold Dollar Bubble", will the gold content and influence of the Super League be affected?

This is almost certain.

Many of the world’s top foreign players have landed in the Super League in the "Golden Dollar Era". They have brought unprecedented attention, such as Hulk, Teixeira, Augusto, Bakambu, Fellaini, Carrasco, Kazakhstan Msik wait.

After the implementation of the new deal with a maximum salary of 3 million euros before tax, the sky-high foreign aid will no longer exist, and the big-name foreign aid of the Super League has also set off a wave of withdrawal.

　　Foreign players such as Zahavi, Hulk, Pellet have bid farewell to the Super League, and no one knows who will leave next.

After the contract expires, the big-name foreign players who stay in the Super League are likely to not renew their contracts due to the maximum salary policy. This also means that the "foreign aid-led" teams in the Super League will face a period of shock to restructure their lineups.

　　Take Beijing Zhonghe Guoan as an example. Vieira, Augusto and Bakambu have been the core players of the team in recent seasons. They have constructed Guoan’s picturesque frontcourt.

But 2021 is the contract year of the "Trident". When they leave, Guoan will face a systematic reconstruction in the 2022 season.

In fact, the need to rebuild is far more than Guoan, because most of the Super League teams use foreign aid as the main framework and build a tactical system.

　　The wave of foreign aid withdrawal is only part of it. An industry insider told the Beijing News that they are also worried about the difficulty of inviting well-known foreign teachers in the future. “Many clubs pay equally for celebrity coaches. After the total expenditure of clubs is limited, it is difficult to hire again. To a well-known coach, and a good coach often brings more than results to the team."

　　In the previous annual salary rankings of world football coaches announced by the media, two Chinese Super League team coaches entered the top ten, namely Dalian coach Benitez (13.5 million euros) and Guangzhou Evergrande coach Cannavaro. (12 million euros).

According to French media reports, the national security coach Genesio's annual salary is close to 8 million euros.

Under the pay limit order, it is also unknown whether the Super League will see the famous coach again in the future.

Grandstand

In the AFC Champions League, it is hard to break the top 8

　　In the 2020 season, the four teams representing the Chinese Super League in the AFC Champions League are Guangzhou Evergrande, Beijing Guoan, Shanghai SIPG and Shanghai Shenhua.

Evergrande and Shenhua both broke the group stage, SIPG stopped in the top 16 of the AFC Champions League, and Guoan, who created the best record in the team's history in the AFC, broke into the top 8.

After the Chinese Super League BIG4's AFC matches all ended, the outside world gave a pessimistic view, "The golden age of the Chinese Super League team in the past few years has ended."

　　It is undeniable that the "Golden Dollar Era" of Chinese professional football has bubbles and drawbacks, but the foreign aid and foreign teachers who came because of the sky-high transfer fees and salaries have brought the Chinese Super League a glorious moment in the international arena.

In 2013 and 2015, Evergrande won the AFC Champions League twice.

In 2017 and 2019, SIPG and Evergrande entered the top four of the AFC Champions League respectively, and big-name foreign players played a key role.

　　Before Evergrande entered the top 8 of the AFC Champions League in 2012, the Chinese Super League team faced the difficulty of qualifying for the group after the AFC restructuring. Even if they stumbled to qualify, they were all rounds of the knockout rounds.

The high return under the high investment has become the driving force to stimulate the high investment of the Super League clubs.

　　When the well-known foreign aid and foreign teachers gradually withdraw, can the Super League team play a battle in the AFC in the future?

The outside world is not optimistic about this, the most pessimistic view is "return to ten years ago overnight", and believe that Guoan's top 8 results this season will be the best record of the Super League team in the AFC in the next few years.

　　Over the past years, the Chinese Super League teams have been extremely dependent on foreign teachers and foreign aid. This dependence is not only reflected in the AFC stadium, but also in the domestic league.

In the past three seasons, only about 1/4 of the 16 Super League teams have chosen local coaches to coach; foreign players occupy the main position in the frontcourt of each team, and domestic players whose living space has been squeezed have improved in the 2020 season. After 20 league rounds, their total number of goals is still 155 goals behind the 287 goals scored by foreign players.

The strictest salary limit order is regarded as a powerful measure to change the "foreign aid and foreign teacher dependence" of the Super League team.

　　After the sudden braking, the Super League team needs time to stand firm, but how long this "stability period" will take is still unknown.

crux

Foreign aid has not yet made matching adjustments

　　The once prosperous Chinese Super League now needs to focus on the future.

Before the star foreign aid gradually leaves and the level of local players improves, how can the top Chinese professional football league attract the support of fans?

　　The Chinese Super League copyright has been sold for 8 billion yuan in 5 years (later adjusted to 11 billion yuan in 10 years). Now that the gold content of the league is greatly reduced, the Super League, which is considered no longer "valuable", needs to plan a "small cost day".

　　Chen Xuyuan pointed out that after many Super League teams lack foreign aid, their competitive level is completely different from the two teams, which is not a good side for the development of Chinese football.

However, this is exactly the current situation of Chinese football. When most of the core positions of the teams are occupied by foreign players, the growth and trust of local players are not sufficient.

　　In the ten years of "Golden Dollar Football", the only domestic player capable of defeating foreign aid to win the Super League Golden Boot is Wu Lei.

Although the evacuation wave of excellent foreign aid is thought to give domestic players more opportunities to exercise, the terms of the number of foreign aid players have not been adjusted due to the salary limit order, which runs counter to the original intention of the salary limit order.

　　In the past few seasons, the terms of foreign aid have been adjusted many times.

In the 2017 and 2018 seasons, a total of 3 foreign aid players can play in a game in the Super League; in June 2019, the Chinese Football Association adjusted this rule to "No more than 3 foreign aid players can play at the same time in a game"; in the 2020 season, For the purpose of enhancing the viewing and competitiveness of the league, the foreign aid policy has been adjusted again to 5 people signing up and 4 people playing.

Domestic players did not get more room for growth, not to mention they still need to compete with the new group of naturalized players.

　　The beginning of the "small cost era" is destined to be chaotic, such as contradictory policies, such as fans suddenly wanting to accept the support of the team replaced by an unfamiliar name.

　　December 31 is the 28th birthday of Beijing Guoan Club, but maybe this is the last birthday of Beijing Guoan, because according to the "Notice of Non-Corporate Change of Club Names for All Levels of Professional Leagues" issued by the Chinese Football Association, Guoan, TEDA, Jianye , Yatai and other names that have existed in Chinese football for more than 20 years will no longer exist.

　　This is the most controversial change, because in the eyes of fans, these names are no longer commercialized symbols, but are regarded as the heritage of a team, so Shanghai Shenhua fans will strive to stay after the club changes." "Shenhua".

　　Investors, players, coaches, fans, the Super League is about to usher in the "small cost era", which will definitely affect every Chinese football practitioner and follower.

Where to go?

The road ahead is still in the mist.

　　A18-A19 edition writing/Beijing News reporter Zhou Xiao

　　Beijing News Graphics/Shi Chunlei