On the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, Shandong Taishan, the "most stable" team during the offseason of the Super League, suddenly became the focus of public opinion at the end of the year.

　　Beijing time on the 8th, the AFC announced the cancellation of Shandong Taishan Football Club's 2021 AFC qualification announcement, breaking the short-term calm before the Chinese football festival.

In the AFC announcement, the name of the team is still the old name "Shandong Luneng" before the name change.

　　Fans who are still figuring out how to celebrate the Spring Festival have joined the "eating melon" army, with question marks on everyone's face: "What happened?"

　　The Shandong fans also wondered that they would eat the melons from the disbanded and unpaid Chinese Super League teams all day long, and they never expected to eat them...

Screenshot of AFC Weibo announcement

　　In fact, fans are not the only ones who can't get their heads. When the reporter asked the club members for the first time, the other party was also at a loss and said that they would consult relevant departments for verification.

　　Taishan goalkeeper Wang Dalei, who just finished the first phase of winter training, directly posted three question marks on social media to express his doubts.

Screenshot of Wang Dalei's social media

　　According to the announcement, Shandong Taishan was disqualified from the AFC Champions League because it did not meet the mandatory criteria for overdue payments in the "AFC Club Access Rules" (2016 Edition).

In layman's terms, there is a salary arrears.

　　This is even more confusing. The time-honored Shandong Taishan team is recognized as one of the most stable Super League teams.

"Pay arrears", a high-frequency vocabulary in domestic football, has always been irrelevant to the Taishan team, which is invested by state-owned enterprises.

　　Taking a step back, if this happened to other Super League teams, the degree of accident might not be so high...

Netizen comment screenshot

　　Based on the rumors of Shandong Taishan’s several transfer transactions, plus the previous draw in the AFC group draw, Shandong Taishan has a very positive attitude towards the new season of the AFC and it is obviously unlikely to give up in this way. AFC.

AFC Champions League draws.

Image source: AFC official Weibo

　　In Asia, only Jeonbuk Hyundai was banned from participating in the AFC Champions League for one year because of alleged bribery for kick-fixing.

As a veteran team, Shandong Taishan obviously cannot accept being deprived of AFC qualification for this reason. After all, this is quite a shameful thing.

　　Going back further, the Chinese Super League team voluntarily gave up the qualification of the AFC, only the 2011 season won the third place.

Until its dissolution last year, this former "ten champions" team failed to get rid of the ridicule of its "Liao Pao Pao" by netizens.

In 2011, Liaozu rushed into the top 3 of the Chinese Super League and won the AFC qualification round, but then gave up the competition.

Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency

　　According to past experience, domestic team disputes that have risen to the level of AFC or FIFA generally originate from foreign aid or foreign teachers.

Before the Guangzhou team's foreign aid Barrios, Tianjin Quanjian's foreign aid Modeste, and the former coach of Guizhou Hengfeng Manzano, they all filed lawsuits to FIFA and even the International Sports Arbitration Tribunal in disputes over leaving the team.

　　As the incident fermented, the reason behind this AFC ticket from Shandong Taishan gradually became clear.

It is reported that the matter originated from a contract termination dispute with a team assistant. The Luneng coach Magath and the team assistant Wolfsgang had differences in coaching philosophy, so they did not pay him salary in accordance with the team contract. .

　　After the contract was terminated, the club believed that this was an internal issue of the Magath team and only the team should pay compensation. However, Wolfsgang directly sued the club to FIFA and the International Court of Arbitration for Sports In the end, the AFC canceled the AFC qualification that the Taishan team finally won due to mistakes...

In the 2020 Football Association Cup final, Shandong Luneng won the cup as hoped and qualified for the 2021 AFC Championship.

Photo by Yang Bo

　　In particular, according to the "Football News" report, after learning about the relevant information, Shandong Taishan Club paid this fee as soon as possible in order to be able to ensure the AFC qualification. Subsequently, Shandong Taishan Team also participated in the AFC Champions League as a seed The lottery ceremony, and got a very good lottery.

　　However, no one thought that less than half a month after the draw of the AFC, the AFC still made the decision to cancel Shandong Taishan's AFC qualification.

　　It stands to reason that usually this kind of big ticket will be ventilated with the club in advance, and there will be some news.

The main reason why this incident was surprising and sudden is that there was no news before.

　　But is it really without warning?

　　According to the "Sports Weekly", in mid-January, the Chinese Football Association has received the news that the AFC will cancel Shandong Taishan AFC qualifications, and the AFC also explained the reasons.

Video screenshot

　　In the previous AFC draw ceremony held on January 27, it was also noted under the team's division: "The results of the procedures of the AFC's independent admission review agency shall prevail." At the same time, it also highlighted The Shandong Taishan team even marked the Taishan team on the picture.

"

　　And these are all ignored by everyone.

Video screenshot

　　After a day of fermentation, Shandong Taishan, who was at the center of public opinion, finally issued a statement in the evening of the 9th in response: "On the afternoon of February 8, our club received a notice from the AFC: We will disqualify our AFC Champions League for the 2021 season. After the notification, the club immediately took emergency measures and responded actively. Related work is in progress. Thank you for your concern from fans and media friends."

Screenshot of Shandong Taishan team official response

　　According to the rules, the Shandong Taishan team still has the opportunity to appeal, but since the International Court of Arbitration for Sports has completed the arbitration, the AFC has issued a ticket based on the arbitration, which makes the appeal difficult.

　　If the appeal is unsuccessful, Beijing Guoan will qualify for the AFC Champions League and enter the Group J drawn by Shandong Taishan, against last season’s Thai League runner-up Lion Harbor, Hong Kong’s Jiezhi team and a qualifying team .

Shanghai Haigang, fourth in the Super League last season, will be postponed to get Beijing Guoan’s AFC Champions League qualification.

Data map: In the 2019 Football Association Cup final, Shandong Luneng lost to Shanghai Shenhua regrettably lost the championship.

Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency

　　For Shandong Taishan team and Chinese football, this is another experience of being "in class".

These "classes" include, but are not limited to, failure to make further progress due to incorrect goal difference calculations in the previous world preliminaries, no player names printed on the Asian Cup qualifiers...

　　Nowadays, Shandong Taishan "lay guns", including the previous disputes with foreign aid and foreign teachers such as Modeste, Barrios, Witsel, Tevez and Manzano, the Chinese clubs do not seem to occupy much. Upper hand.

These have fully exposed the shortcomings of Chinese football's awareness and experience in handling international football affairs.

　　Although the results have not been satisfactory, but to be honest, Chinese football has indeed worked hard to find ways to improve at the competitive level.

But the soft power part of management has become an unintentionally ignored and forgotten part.

　　Under the guidance of the New Deal of the Football Association, domestic football clubs operate more independently, and it is a general trend to improve their open source capabilities. The resulting commercial tasks and operating pressure will greatly increase, and higher requirements will be placed on the management of each club.

Data map: A scarf wall formed by Shandong Luneng fans in the 2020 FA Cup final.

Photo by Yang Bo

　　This time Shandong Taishan was disqualified from the AFC Champions League, which is a good reminder for practitioners.

It's just that the tuition paid by the "class" this time is a relatively embarrassing lesson whether it is for Chinese football or the Shandong Taishan team.

　　Players and fans are anxiously awaiting the results of Shandong Taishan's appeal, and the staff of the club are destined to spend the Spring Festival busy. I hope that all the efforts and remedies can be exchanged for good results.