Liu Yi, secretary general of the Chinese Football Association, said that he would resolutely curb the football bubble, strengthen league supervision and improve the level of marketization.
Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, January 9 (reporter Gong Bing, Zhu Di) in order to further interpret and improve various league policies and regulatory measures and promote the healthy and balanced development of professional league matches, the Chinese Football Association held a professional league policy seminar in Shanghai on the 9th. Liu Yi, secretary general of the Chinese Football Association, said that he would resolutely curb the football bubble, strengthen league supervision and improve the level of marketization.
“Due to the lack of scientific planning for a long time and insufficient understanding of the fundamental goals and core principles of league development, the biggest disadvantage of Chinese professional football league in the past 26 years, it is neither a good business of the league nor a good business of the league. In short, they didn’t earn money or cultivate people.” Liu Yi said that the professional league has not established a mature business model so far. At the same time, there are only a few outstanding youth training talents, and the performance of the national team is not satisfactory. He believes that it is necessary to make professional league matches more professional and market-oriented in accordance with the requirements of the “general plan for the reform and development of Chinese football” and become a popular cultural product in people’s lives, and continuously discover and cultivate talents for the national team.
Liu Yi said that the professional league consists of multiple interest entity such as management agencies, clubs, players, fans, sponsors, etc. The formulation and implementation of any policy must take care of every interest entity and cannot ignore one thing or another, you can’t agree with each other. To this end, the Chinese Football Association has recently communicated closely with all parties and discussed repeatedly. It not only maintains the seriousness and continuity of the existing policies, but also refines and supplements the policies to improve the governance ability of the league, resolutely restrain the football bubble, strengthen league supervision and improve the level of marketization. At the same time, the Chinese Football Association will also make a division of labor with the upcoming professional League Council. The association will focus more on the national team and youth training. The professional league council is responsible for the daily operation of professional league, the two sides established a positive interactive relationship between the league and the national team to help the national team continuously improve its performance in international competitions.
The survey results show that at present, the foreign aid salary of each team in the Chinese Super League accounts for more than 60% of the whole team’s salary expenditure, and the highest proportion reaches 80%, “This is not a healthy number, therefore, we have a comprehensive plan to increase the number of foreign aid but limit the salary of foreign aid (the contract signed by foreign players after January 1, 2020 is a new contract, and the annual salary cannot exceed 3 million euros after tax), this can not only ensure the competitiveness of the team, but also help the club squeeze the investment bubble.” Liu Yi said.
“The introduction of any policy is meaningless without implementation and supervision. We will take strict financial supervision measures on a reasonable basis.” Liu Yi said, “the Chinese Football Association is coordinating with public security, taxation and other departments to complete the financial supervision of the league with their help.”
Liu Yi hopes that young players will remain hungry and encourage them to break through the salary cap. He said: “For young players, the new deal is to maintain talent mobility and give young players more opportunities to play. I hope that young talents will emerge in the league. In addition, we found that if young players’ first professional contract is overpaid, it will bring inertia in their sports career and keep their hunger, therefore, we set a salary cap (the annual salary of U21 players before tax does not exceed 300000 RMB, and if they meet the playing standard, they will not be restricted), but we also encourage them to break through this salary cap, as long as the playing time is enough, we encourage young players to get higher salaries.”
As the main maker of Uefa’s fiscal fairness policy, Deloitte’s representative suggested that the Super League implement fiscal fairness policy. According to reports, the effect after the implementation of Uefa’s fiscal fairness policy is that the accumulated losses of European clubs have been greatly reduced, the debts of clubs have been significantly reduced, and the investment in stadiums and facilities has increased, european football has improved its financial reputation and attracted more international investment.
Coward, former secretary general of the Premier League, shared his experience in the concept, operation strategy and supervision measures of the Premier League, and combined with the current development situation of Chinese professional football, put forward reasonable suggestions on the balance of competition and the healthy development of the league. In addition, he also introduced the practice of British professional football in establishing youth training system and related encouragement mechanism.
“We take the club as the main body to develop youth training and improve the quantity and quality of local young players. The maximum number of first-line registered players is 25, among which there are no more than 17 non-locally trained players. The number of players under the age of 21 is not limited, that is, the number of first-line registered players is not occupied.” Coward said, “because a country has different legal systems, economic and cultural systems, the methods to solve the problem of youth training are also different. China needs to follow its own football ecosystem, seek the best solution.”