The main theme of the Chinese Super League in the new season is still to "maintain stability"
The "salary limit policy" will continue to be used "restoring order and maintaining stability" is the overall goal of the league
The 2023 meeting of heads of professional league clubs and the summit of heads of clubs of the Chinese Super League, China A, and China B will be held at the Xianghe National Team Base on February 7.
During the meeting, the Chinese Football Association and the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Federation will solicit opinions from clubs on the new season's league access policy, league registration, and participation policy plans, and interpret the detailed rules of the policy plan.
"Restoring the normal order of the league and maintaining a stable environment in the league" is the main goal of the work of the Super League and domestic professional leagues at all levels in the 2023 season.
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily learned that starting from "maintaining stability", the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation preparatory team will not make major adjustments to the policies of the professional league in the new season, except that the "U23 local player policy" is likely to be abolished. , the rest of the policies remain basically unchanged.
The "salary limit policy" implemented since the 2021 season will continue to be used.
The top priority for the Chinese Super League in the 2023 season
to resume normal operation of the game
Last week, the Chinese Football Association issued a "Notice on Holding the 2023 Professional League Club Heads Meeting" to the Chinese Super League, Chinese A, and Chinese B clubs.
The notice shows that in order to do a good job in the preparatory work before the start of the 2023 Chinese Super League, Chinese League One, and Chinese League Two, the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation preparatory team plan to hold a working meeting for the main leaders of the third-level league clubs.
The content of the meeting involves "matters related to league access policies; matters related to league registration and participation policies; matters related to league business; other matters".
The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that in view of the fact that the domestic league has been affected by objective factors, it has experienced three extraordinary seasons in a row. Disrupted to a certain extent.
For this reason, the top priority for the Chinese Super League and domestic professional leagues at all levels in the 2023 season is undoubtedly to fully restore the normal operation of the game, fully restore the home and away game system, and reasonable arrangements for the game schedule, so as to attract fans to return to the game scene and restore the vitality of the league.
Of course, an important prerequisite for the league to get back on track is that the league environment is effectively managed.
Among them, it is particularly important to combat and contain chaos such as club wage arrears.
The reason why the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation preparatory group held a league work meeting at this time is to further emphasize that no matter how difficult the league and club operations are, the long-standing "salary arrears" problem that has plagued all parties must be resolved.
For this reason, the organizers of the event have prepared for the worst of the "downsizing" of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League One, and even designed the schedule and closing time of the new season of the Chinese Super League with "16 teams participating" or "18 teams participating".
This means that the Chinese Football Association and the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Federation will determine the scale of leagues at all levels in the new season based on the principle of "prefer lack rather than excess".
Main issues of preparation
Focus on club wage arrears
In fact, the main issues currently affecting the preparations for the new season at all levels are concentrated on the club's shareholding reform and wage arrears.
Some clubs are hesitating between "retire" and "not retreat" due to deep financial or debt crises. The Chinese second club has conditional release of the "off-site transfer" restriction.
But no matter how the organizer understands and cooperates, completely resolving the remaining wage arrears and contract disputes is the "bottom line" that cannot be broken through by the club's "clearance".
After the extraordinary period or the difficult period, whether the domestic professional league can regain its vitality after respite is the most concerned focus of the event organizers, clubs and fans.
It is precisely in consideration of the actual situation and difficulties that the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation decided to maintain the "stability" of various league policies in the new season after conducting research and soliciting opinions from relevant parties.
It is reported that, like last season, the introduction of local players in the Chinese Super League, Chinese League One, and China League Two will not be subject to quota restrictions, and the foreign aid policy will most likely remain unchanged.
As for the U23 local player policy that has been implemented for 6 seasons, after communication with all parties, it has a high probability of being abolished because it is determined that "the harm outweighs the benefit".
Salary restrictions remain in place for now
is a relatively rational choice
In recent days, rumors about "further salary restrictions in the Chinese Super League" have attracted attention from all parties.
However, according to a considerable number of club representatives, they have not received any agenda notices regarding the adjustment of the content of the Xianghe conference.
A representative of the event organizer confirmed to a reporter from Beiqing Daily that "the content of the salary limit is not within the scope of discussion at this meeting."
It is reported that considering that the main problem currently plaguing professional leagues at all levels is "salary arrears", the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation preparatory team will continue to use the "enhanced salary limit order" launched since the 2021 season for the "salary limit".
Specific to the Chinese Super League clubs, the total investment of each single season should not exceed 600 million yuan, the total salary of local players should not exceed 75 million yuan, and the total salary of foreign players should not exceed 10 million euros.
The maximum salary of local players is limited to 5 million yuan before tax, and the maximum salary of foreign players is 3 million euros before tax.
The overall average annual salary of local players shall not exceed 3 million yuan before tax, and the average annual salary of foreign players shall not exceed 1.5 million euros.
It is understood that although some clubs have relatively strong demands for "further salary restrictions" due to their own operational difficulties, in fact, the vast majority of clubs have encountered varying degrees of operational difficulties in the past three seasons, and their investment in signings has decreased significantly year by year. .
Similar to the "Shenfeng" Kanter introduced by the Cangzhou Lions last season, new Chinese Super League players even landed in the Chinese Super League at a zero transfer price.
Therefore, even without external policy restrictions, most clubs have returned to rationality in terms of signings, and the trend of "throttling" or "tightening money" may continue into the 2023 season or even beyond.
In addition, according to the current "salary limit order", each club's single-season investment and domestic and foreign aid salary investment have been "capped", which means that each club can independently choose low, medium, and high prices within the allowed range of the "investment cap". Duan's new aid.
Since the new season of the Chinese Super League will start in mid-to-late April at the earliest, most clubs have already started the search for new aid at this moment, and some have even entered the critical period of negotiation or signing. If the salary limit order is suddenly adjusted at this time, it is bound to It will have a negative impact on these cooperations, and even add chaos to the club, which is contrary to the original intention of the tournament organizers to restore the order of the league and maintain the stability of the league environment.
It can be seen that it is a relatively rational choice to keep the salary limit order unchanged for the time being.
Text/Reporter Xiao Nan