Zhou Qi breaks the professional controversy behind CBA
China News Weekly reporter/Yang Zhijie
Issued in the 1013th issue of China News Weekly on 2021.9.20
When the fans regretted that Zhou Qi had no ball to play in the new season and guessed his future destination, Zhou Qi contacted a number of overseas clubs in a low-key manner, and officially announced at noon on September 8th Beijing time that he would join the Australian League NBL Southeast Melbourne Phoenix team.
At this time, only 9 days have passed since Zhou Qi publicly announced his withdrawal from the CBA (Chinese Men's Basketball Professional League) new season.
On August 29, with only 2 days left before the end of the CBA transfer window for the 2021-2022 season, Chinese basketball player Zhou Qi declared on social media, "I will withdraw from the entire season and insist on defending the players’ legitimate rights. This is what I do. The responsibilities of the players, I hope that through my work, the CBA League can be more standardized and truly protect the reasonable rights of the players."
The contract dispute with the Xinjiang Men's Basketball Team was the fuse that triggered Zhou Qi's departure.
The Xinjiang Men’s Basketball Team intended to provide Zhou Qi with a maximum salary contract of 6 million yuan. According to the CBA rules, the club has the exclusive right to sign the maximum salary contract for the players, but Zhou Qi did not intend to accept it.
Zhou Qi, Xinjiang Men's Basketball, and the CBA League did not back down. Under the stalemate, Zhou Qi left the NBL.
Basketball commentator Su Qun believes that for the entire CBA, Zhou Qi is the core of the inside line, a national league. The loss of its signature players due to contract contradictions is a huge loss for the league. Next, the salary limit and maximum salary system should be reviewed. .
The tortuous growth of "talented players"
Those familiar with CBA have a consensus: Zhou Qi is currently the strongest inside player of the Chinese men's basketball team.
Although he was also controversial, in the 2019 Men's Basketball World Cup, in the key match between the Chinese team and the Polish team, Zhou Qi's serve error caused the Chinese team to fail to end the game in regular time, and was defeated by the opponent in overtime, resulting in the Chinese men's basketball team. Missing a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics was ridiculed as an "undercover act."
But this cannot deny Zhou Qi's level. He is the only Chinese player who has played in the NBA in recent years, except for Yi Jianlian.
In the past 2020~2021 season, Zhou Qi was selected as the best main center of the CBA.
Zhou Qi broke into the Chinese basketball world under the aura of a "talented player".
Li Ming, the principal of the Liaoning Fuxin Basketball School, is Zhou Qi’s "Bole". In 2005, he first saw this boy from Henan and recognized his talent.
At that time, Zhou Qi was 9 years old, a lot taller than a normal child, with long arms, big hands, soft joints, and firm eyes. Unlike other basketball specialties, he felt Zhou Qi’s "innate aura", and then He was taken to Fuxin Basketball School for special training.
In 2011, Zhou Qi participated in the U16 Men's Basketball International Invitational. In the semifinals, he scored 41 points, 28 rebounds and 15 blocks.
From the data alone, he surpassed Yao Ming in the same period.
Zhou Qi helped the Chinese team enter the finals and eventually won the championship.
Now, what made him resolutely withdraw from the entire CBA season is his contract dispute with Xinjiang Guanghui Men's Basketball Club (hereinafter referred to as "Xinjiang Men's Basketball"), which planted the seeds when he first joined the Xinjiang Men's Basketball Team.
In January 2014, when Zhou Qi had just turned 18, the Xinjiang team snatched the "star of the future" from the Liaoning team.
For a long time, most of the clubs in the Chinese Basketball Professional League have been affiliated with the local government's sports department. Small players from sports schools and basketball schools under the Sports Bureau are often selected to play in the first team.
Zhou Qi came to Liaoning when he was 9 years old. He was born in Liaoning youth training. The outside world generally believed that he would join the Liaoning team as a matter of course, but was "picked up" by the Xinjiang team.
It is understood that Zhou Qi's file was still in the Fuxin Basketball School at the time, and was not in the establishment of the Provincial Sports Bureau, and was a "freedom."
The new media "Sports Business" once reported that the Liaoning team offered a four-year contract of 13 million yuan for Zhou Qi, but the Xinjiang team offered a higher price, 45 million yuan for eight years, which impressed Zhou Qi.
Some media reported that because the Liaoning team let Zhou Qi go, a deputy director of the Liaoning Sports Bureau directly "dismissed get out of class."
At that time, according to the "Interim Measures for the Registration and Management of Chinese Basketball Association Clubs, Sports Teams, Athletes and Coaches (2014)" issued by the Basketball Association, Zhou Qi signed a "4+2" contract with the Xinjiang Men's Basketball Team.
When Zhou Qi first arrived in the Xinjiang men’s basketball team, he briefly participated in the Xinjiang youth team. This was recognized by the Basketball Association as a Xinjiang youth training system. In order to protect the club’s youth training system, in addition to the regular 4-year contract, the Xinjiang Men’s Basketball Team will also Has the priority to sign Zhou Qi for 2 years.
In 2016, Zhou Qi participated in the NBA Draft and was selected by the Houston Rockets.
In 2017, after helping the Xinjiang Men's Basketball Team to win the first CBA championship trophy in team history, he joined the Rockets and became the sixth Chinese player to land in the NBA.
According to FIBA regulations, the Chinese Basketball Association issued a clarification letter at that time, proving that Zhou Qi's contract with the Xinjiang Men's Basketball Team had been terminated.
However, Zhou Qi's battle in the NBA was not smooth. Due to his poor performance, Zhou Qi was laid off by the Houston Rockets in December 2018.
At that time, Zhou Qi thought he had regained his free status. He received an olive branch from the Beijing Shougang and Liaoning teams, and two contracts with an annual salary of more than 25 million yuan.
Zhou Qi prefers the Liaoning team. He had close contacts with the senior leaders of the Liaoning team when he returned to China in early 2019. The photos of him having dinner with the senior men of the Liaoning men's basketball team once caused heated discussions on the Internet.
Even though his performance in the NBA disappointed the fans, Zhou Qi is still the top player in China.
"Domestic players close to his level, not optimistically speaking, no." A person close to the Xinjiang Men's Basketball team told China News Weekly.
The Xinjiang team, holding the "4+2" contract, was unwilling to let go and appealed to the Basketball Association.
The question of Zhou Qi's attribution once became one of the hottest topics in the Chinese basketball world in the first half of 2019.
This has also attracted the attention of CBA, the China Basketball Association (Beijing) Sports Co., Ltd.
On April 24, 2019, Yao Ming, the chairman of the CBA company at the time, responded publicly. Zhou Qi and Xinjiang had a very full discussion. Both parties submitted a lot of materials. The CBA league will soon have a conclusion.
Three days later, CBA ruled that the Xinjiang team has the priority to renew Zhou Qi's two-year contract or the exclusive right to sign.
When Zhou Qi returned to China, he was in the early stage of the reform of the CBA League, and the old and new regulations were alternated, which paved the way for today's controversy.
Since 2018, in order to further clarify the "separation of management and management" between CBA and the Chinese Basketball Association, CBA has begun to revise and implement the standard version of the "Domestic Player Employment Contract" and the standard version of the "Foreign Player Employment Contract" (hereinafter referred to as the "Standard Contract" ), but in the beta version of the new contract, there is no mention of the attribution of players who go to overseas professional leagues.
The CBA Company proposed that "the old method for the elderly, the new method for the newcomer", and Zhou Qi signed a "4+2" contract with the club to determine.
Zhou Qi’s controversy has even been permanently recorded in the CBA reform in another way. In May 2019, CBA launched a trial version of the Standard Contract. Compared with the previous version, the new version added the effect of returning to China The registration rights of CBA players are defined. When a player chooses to go overseas without fulfilling the CBA contract and he returns to the CBA, the original club can exercise the right of matching or priority renewal.
This rule was only applicable to Zhou Qi at that time, so it was also called the "Zhou Qi Clause" by the outside world.
In August 2019, Zhou Qi signed a two-year new type B (protection) contract with the Xinjiang team and returned to the CBA arena.
This summer, when the contract expired, Zhou Qi's ownership issue was once again put on the table.
At first, Zhou Qi just wanted to leave the Xinjiang Men's Basketball Team. In the past year, he has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the Xinjiang Men's Basketball Team on social media.
However, just like two years ago, the Xinjiang Men's Basketball Team is unwilling to let go.
According to the new version of the "Standard Contract", the club will have the exclusive right to sign the player after the B-type contract expires and the D-type (maximum salary) contract is issued, and the player cannot refuse it.
On June 25, the Xinjiang team submitted a D-type renewal contract to Zhou Qifang and completed the filing with the CBA Alliance, but Zhou Qi did not sign this time.
"Why is Zhou Qi reluctant to stay in the Xinjiang team? He thinks that the '4+2' contract has been completed in Xinjiang, but when the'+2' contract was signed at that time, the CBA issued a new policy, stipulating that the club should give players a maximum salary contract. , The players can only accept. This means that Zhou Qi can only play in the Xinjiang team until the age of 34, so he quit." Su Qun explained.
The Xinjiang team’s recent response showed that from June to August, in response to the contract differences with the Xinjiang Men’s Basketball Team, Zhou Qi successively applied to the CBA League and the Disciplinary Committee for mediation.
Zhou Qi even reported that the Xinjiang team violated salary cap regulations and tax issues.
After negotiating with the Xinjiang team to be invalid, Zhou Qi decided to completely fall out with the Xinjiang team, hoping that the players can unilaterally terminate the contract if the CBA company finds that the club has breached or violated the rules.
The Xinjiang Men’s Basketball Team stated that the collegiate panel formed by the representatives of the five shareholders of the CBA Alliance rejected all Zhou Qi’s demands. Continue to enjoy relevant rights".
Zhou Qi declined the media interview. On July 15, his agent Sui Ran publicly pointed the finger at the CBA League on Weibo, saying that the relevant departments of the CBA League were shockingly disappointed in protecting the rights and interests of players.
In August, Xinhua News Agency reported that Zhou Qi’s team disagreed with the mediation opinions issued by the CBA Alliance, and had reservations about the legitimacy of the case by the collegiate panel composed of shareholder representatives of the five clubs in the mediation process and the fairness of the mediation results of this case.
At the same time, they also filed an arbitration application with the Chinese Basketball Association, which is currently investigating.
In the stalemate, Zhou Qi directly announced his withdrawal from the CBA league.
In the opinion of basketball commentator Su Qun, the Basketball Association, Xinjiang team and fans should be able to feel Zhou Qi and his agent Sui Ran’s determination, but Zhou Qi chose to release the news two days before the deadline for player registration, "The heart is still I hope there is room for maneuver in the incident."
The Chinese Basketball Association and the CBA Company did not publicly state their positions, and both refused to make any remarks about Zhou Qi to China News Weekly.
Basketball reporter Jia Lei once wrote, “According to relevant sources of the Chinese Basketball Association, the Basketball Association did not give a clear answer to the dispute over Zhou Qi’s contract. Investigate and handle it properly."
Finally, on September 8, Beijing time, Zhou Qi announced to join the Australian League NBL Southeast Melbourne Phoenix team, signing a two-year contract.
Double-sided "salary cap"
After Zhou Qi joined the NBL, the onlookers were even more curious about how much he could earn.
The Australian NBL basketball salary table shows that the annual salary of foreign aid is between 120,000 and 250,000 US dollars, the highest annual salary is 500,000 US dollars per year, and the team's salary cap is 1.1 million US dollars per year.
A basketball commentator once said on Weibo that Zhou Qi's annual salary for the new season is about 4 million yuan.
Zhou Qi wants to leave the Xinjiang Men's Basketball Team. In addition to hoping to gain the initiative, it has something to do with the CBA's salary cap.
Wang Zhe is a CBA professional basketball agent who has signed several CBA players. He told China News Weekly that in the Chinese basketball world, only Zhou Qi dared to retire against the CBA company. No one dared to follow suit. The salary of players at the level is most affected by the salary cap."
Two years ago, the Xinjiang Men's Basketball team gave him an annual salary of 20 million yuan. If he continues to stay in the CBA, Zhou Qi will receive up to 6 million yuan.
"Salary cap" refers to the total wages that a team can use to pay players each season.
The NBA has officially implemented salary caps since the 1980s to prevent rich clubs from spending money to buy all good players, making it difficult for economically weak teams to survive.
In June 2019, the "Standard Contract" launched by the CBA officially proposed the salary cap system for the first time, covering the overall basic salary cap of domestic players, the minimum salary limit of a single domestic player, the single-game winning bonus limit of domestic players, and the overall salary limit of foreign players. And so on to make a clear definition.
The salary cap will come into effect in the 2020~2021 season. The upper limit of the salary expenditure of local players of each club is 44 million yuan, the lower limit is 20 million yuan, and the maximum salary of a single local player is 8 million yuan before tax.
In June of this year, the CBA announced the salary standard for the new season, and the maximum salary of local players was lowered to 6 million yuan.
CBA's salary cap has been called for by the industry for many years.
The industry generally introduced the Xinjiang team in 2007 to Battelle as the beginning of the CBA era of fighting for money.
Battelle was born in the youth training of the Beijing team. In the summer of 2007, the Xinjiang men's basketball team invested 4 million yuan to buy it, setting a record for the highest signing of domestic players.
At that time, the Xinjiang team was one of the clubs with the strongest financial resources, buying coaches, domestic aid and foreign aid from various clubs at high prices.
In addition to Battelle, in the 2010~2011 season, Xinjiang team used 2 million annual salary and 3 million yuan transfer fee to sign Zhang Qingpeng, the core of Liaoning team, creating the highest net worth of CBA local defenders. Zhang Qingpeng's annual salary for Xinjiang team is twice that of Liaoning. .
When Zhou Qi joined Xinjiang, he was at the pinnacle of the CBA club's "grabbing battle".
In 2017, Yao Ming took over as chairman of the Basketball Association.
"Yao Ming faced two major problems when he took office: one is the high wages of players, and the other is that some teams with poor performance cannot retain the youth training talents they have cultivated." Su Qun told China News Weekly.
Until 2020, CBA Athlete Development President Zhang Chi told the media that at present almost all CBA clubs are unable to make ends meet, and there are not a few who lose tens of millions of yuan each year.
Moreover, the salary expenditures of local players in various clubs are very uneven. The total salary ratio of the clubs with the largest and smallest clubs is around 5:1.
Youth training coaches in Liaoning, Jilin and other places have reported to the media that many of the young players they trained were bought by big clubs such as the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta when they were twelve or thirteen years old. .
Regulations such as salary cap and maximum salary contract retention are introduced in this context.
CBA has also stated that the salary cap system is "to guide CBA league clubs to rationally plan player salaries and achieve long-term financial balance; to promote clubs to strengthen echelon construction and to continuously deliver talents for the national team; to promote the orderly flow of CBA league players and balance the competition. Level, ultimately lay the foundation for the sustainable development of the CBA League."
"From the perspective of the league, the maximum salary system to retain people is to protect top players from being poached by other clubs. Of course, they will be welcomed by many weak clubs. Clubs can reduce investment and avoid vicious price competition." Su Qun said.
However, on the other side of the maximum salary system, top players like Zhou Qi have lost the right to actively choose under the new system.
In Su Qun’s view, behind the Zhou Qi incident is the CBA dilemma: club operations are losing money, and the league has introduced a maximum salary system to protect the interests of investors; a few elite players have lost their freedom of movement, and their income cannot reflect their personal ability. Is in a weak position in front of the system.
The NBA "restricted free agent" is similar to the CBA's priority renewal rights, but the difference is that "restricted free agent" specifically refers to rookie players who must have played the first-round rookie standard contract for 4 years, and their parent team has The right matches the other team’s contract and forcibly retains people.
The aforementioned club staff interviewed mentioned that although the retention of the maximum salary contract restricts top players like Zhou Qi, it is part of the "standard contract" that must balance the interests of all parties.
He gave an example to China News Weekly that each club only has 3 maximum salary quotas, not only for its own players, but also for talents from other clubs in the market. This gives some players outside the top three in the team. Opportunity to get a maximum salary from other clubs.
CBA reform is in trouble
"Zhou Qi's incident reflects the three problems of Chinese professional basketball. First, clubs are generally losing money, which is also the background of the introduction of the 6 million maximum salary system this year; second, it reflects the reality that professional basketball talents are very scarce, because talents Players cannot compete with players. On the other hand, clubs need to grab people. However, the CBA League helps clubs to control the flow of personnel. Third, players have a small right to speak. When this policy is introduced, The players' thoughts and requirements have not been reflected." Su Qun told China News Weekly.
Zheng Zhipeng is a staff member of a club of CBA. He also admitted that the CBA League pays more attention to club rights because the current development status of CBA is not optimistic.
The reason why the American NBA League values the voice of players is because the commercialization of the NBA is extremely successful.
The NBA's income mainly includes TV broadcasting fees, tickets and commercial sponsorships. Each team depends on the league's fair distribution and their respective team's broadcasting and advertising revenue.
Among them, the NBA TV broadcast contract is $24 billion for 9 years, which will expire in the 2024-2025 season.
At present, the total amount of the NBA's next-stage TV broadcast contract has also been finalized, which is about $75 billion in nine years, which is three times the current broadcast fee.
"If a player plays a game, the owner of the club will earn money for a game. If the player does not play, the owner will not earn money. Therefore, NBA clubs are more willing to protect the interests of the players."
In contrast, CBA has a low degree of commercialization and relies more on club investors' subsidies.
The "CBA League Performance White Paper" released by Deloitte believes that the CBA brand lacks recognition, the conversion of fans is limited, and there is insufficient professional talent.
Zheng Zhipeng noticed that the domestic CBA fans have a poor cultural atmosphere and people do not have the consumption habit of buying tickets to watch football matches. This has led to the lack of a rich source of income for the club.
In 2018, a CBA club investor once told the media that in the past, the club had to invest 80 million yuan a year. Excluding sponsorship fees, tickets, and individual subsidies from the Sports Bureau, the annual loss was about 40 million yuan. The team loses about 60 million yuan a year.
Since Yao Ming became the chairman of the Basketball Association, China's professional basketball has promoted the reform of "separation of management and operation", and has done a lot of work on the professionalization of the league, the development of commercial value, and the talent training reserve, and it has also achieved certain results.
Before the 2019 Men's Basketball World Cup, Yao Ming announced a new concept of CBA reform-CBA2.0 brand upgrade plan.
The so-called "CBA2.0 brand upgrade plan" was launched in response to the current commercial deficiencies of the league, including increasing the number of league games to meet the needs of fans to watch the game, thereby increasing ticket revenue, increasing the length and scope of sponsor exposure; developing clubs The value of IP, such as redesigning the team logo and launching the "Basketball Music Carnival" to attract young fans.
This was originally an opportunity for the CBA to increase revenue, but the plan was disrupted by a series of accidents.
In Zheng Zhipeng's view, China's professional basketball has experienced "natural disasters and man-made disasters" before CBA 2.0 has landed.
"Man-made disaster" refers to the 2019 FIBA World Cup. The Chinese team did not qualify and missed the Olympics. This means that for 8 consecutive years, the Chinese men's basketball team has not been able to participate in this world competition and cannot display its image, which will affect the attention and commercial value.
"Natural disaster" is the new crown epidemic, the home and away system is cancelled in China, and the club loses ticket revenue.
In the 2020~2021 season, Migu Video and CBA signed a broadcast fee of 2 billion yuan for 5 years, while Tencent and Youku, which had signed in the past, both gave up the broadcast rights, which made the difficult days of the CBA League even worse.
At the moment when the club is losing heavily and the league does not have a mature business model, Su Qun believes that it is difficult to truly balance the labor-management relationship.
"Capital investors are the foundation of the CBA league. Without investor investment, the league cannot run, and there is no place for players to receive money. I think (the current policy is biased towards capital) is worth understanding." Su Qun told China News Weekly ".
Despite this, he believes that CBA's wage policy is not impeccable.
"How to consider the personal interests of players, especially the interests of top-tier players, and preserve the core assets of the CBA, I think the league and the Chinese Basketball Association should think carefully and must not remain indifferent."
In fact, the CBA regulations also take care of the rights of some players.
For example, setting a lower limit on player wages ensures the salary treatment of players at the middle and lower levels, and allows the CBA league to have a fixed contract.
A basketball commentator who did not want to be named said that this rule actually starts from the entire league and considers the rights of more players.
"Even the NBA rules are formulated after decades of continuous revision. It cannot be said that Chinese professional basketball has just been reformed for two or three years. Yao Ming has only been chairman of the Basketball Association for a few years. It is unrealistic to satisfy the interests of labor." As a professional basketball agent, in Wang Zhe's view, Zhou Qi's choice of the NBL league with a lower salary is obviously not just considering the factor of money.
Zhou Qi's departure was against the rules of the CBA League.
The outside world was worried that when Zhou Qi went abroad, the Xinjiang men's basketball team refused to issue a letter of clarification.
However, the aforementioned people close to the Xinjiang Men’s Basketball Team told China News Weekly that the Xinjiang Men’s Basketball Team will not block Zhou Qi from playing overseas, whether it is the NBA or the NBL. This, to some extent, responds to the CBA’s purpose of introducing a salary cap. If the player does not meet the domestic salary level, he can step out of his comfort zone, go abroad to improve his level, and drive his national team and league level after returning home.
More importantly, "No matter where Zhou Qi goes, as long as he returns to the CBA, according to the rules, he is still a player of the Xinjiang team." Zheng Zhipeng said.
This means that if Zhou Qi returns to the CBA one day in the future, the attribution issue will still be a problem that plagues Zhou Qi, the Xinjiang Men's Basketball Team and the CBA League.
(At the request of the interviewee, Wang Zhe and Zheng Zhipeng are both pseudonyms)
China News Weekly, Issue 35, 2021
Statement: The publication of the "China News Weekly" manuscript is authorized in writing