Reporter Chen Yong reported that recently, Zhejiang Football Club encountered difficulties, according to media reports, the club's U13 echelon and U15 echelon are about to play in the third Youth Championship, but can not make up the participation fee of 560,000 yuan, for this reason, Zhejiang Club opened the U19, U17 and U15 three echelons of the chest title, and at the same time opened the youth training support stands, selling 680 yuan and 300 yuan two grades of support tickets.
A veteran club with a long history and a reputation for youth training did not even have the cost of the echelon to participate in the Chinese Youth Championship.
Of the sixteen Chinese Super League clubs, only Harbour and Shenhua remain stable at present, which can be seen from the results of the two teams - on July 26, after defeating Nantong 8-1, Harbour broke the previous record of 13 consecutive wins in the Chinese Super League held by Taishan and Guangzhou; Although Shenhua is not as strong as Harbour, they are unbeaten so far this season.
Of course, the two teams are also different. As a wholly-owned club of SIPG, the harbor has been stable since the end of 2014; Shenhua has undergone several share reforms, including the 10-year Greenland era, when the team was not stable enough until Jiushi Group took over in April 2023.
The other three relatively stable clubs are Rongcheng, Jinmen Tiger and Henan. Although it was once rumored that there were financial problems in Rongcheng and the club also increased ticket prices, the overall situation of the club is relatively stable at present; After Henan carried out the share reform again at the beginning of this year, Jianye Group completely got rid of it, and after the new shareholders entered, the operation of the club entered a relatively stable period; After the mandatory resurrection in early 2021, the Jinmen Tigers entered a state of government-led and co-sponsored by several major enterprises, and they have been very stable for several seasons.
As for Guoan, Taishan and Zhejiang, there are problems at the level of share reform.
Guoan seems to be in the most serious situation at the moment, and the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau has previously intervened in the relevant operations of the club to ensure that the club can weather the difficulties as much as possible.
The situation of Taishan has been analyzed many times before, and after the "443" share reform, there are certain problems in the allocation of funds by major shareholders. At present, the club has encountered a lot of difficulties, of course, Taishan's share reform is actually the easiest to promote, a very important reason is that the club currently has no substantial debt, which is due to the previous club has nearly 600 million yuan of liquidity, of course, in order to completely straighten out the share reform, Shandong Province, Jinan City and the three major shareholders still need to make more efforts.
The situation in Zhejiang is similar to that in Henan, where the club has been seeking a mixed-ownership share reform for the past two years, but the progress has not been smooth, because the original two major shareholders, Jianye and Greentown, have been unable to allocate capital, resulting in the club's difficulties. The Henan Club's approach was to carry out a second share reform, and at the same time significantly reduce expenses at the beginning of the year in order to tide over the difficulties; As for the Zhejiang Club, it is also working hard to carry out the second share reform, and the direction of the share reform is gradually clear, that is, the province and the city are jointly built, and a municipal state-owned enterprise is expected to become a shareholder, and the original provincial state-owned enterprise Zhejiang Energy jointly operates the club.
Looking at other clubs, they basically belong to both situations or both, and some have difficulties.
Although the provincial and municipal sides have been involved in the share reform since the 2023 season, no substantial progress has been made at present, and the second share reform has a long way to go; There is also instability in Meizhou and Cangzhou, and the team has been struggling to survive.
As for Yatai, it belongs to a small-cost operation, in fact, it is also a small-cost operation, as well as the above-mentioned Jinmen Tiger and Henan. In addition, Manatee, West Coast, Meizhou, Cangzhou and Nantong are all investing less than 100 million yuan, all struggling on the edge of relegation.
Relatively unclear is Xinpeng City, the club relies on the city football group, and at the same time after the relocation to Shenzhen has a relatively large space for development, if it works well, it may have a certain competitiveness in the Chinese Super League.
In fact, professional football is, there are examples of small costs to leverage good results, but it is not the norm, capital determines results, which is the eternal law, and this is especially true of the Chinese Super League.
It is a fact that although there are some problems in the operation of the Chinese Super League, it has improved significantly compared with when Jinyuan Football was just broken, but if the league wants to develop steadily (non-high-quality development), it also needs all parties to further promote the share reform.
Before analyzing how to reform the shares, let's first analyze the basic situation of the Chinese Super League clubs. At present, there are about seven forms, and there are four wholly-owned clubs of Chinese enterprises: Haigang, Shenhua, Rongcheng and Yatai; Three joint investment clubs of a number of state-owned enterprises: Taishan, Henan and Zhejiang (in the direction of share reform); One government trusteeship club: Jinmen Tigers; One mixed ownership club of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises: Cangzhou; There are five private enterprise clubs funded and supported by the government: Guoan, Manatee, Meizhou, West Coast, and Nantong; A private enterprise club that is seeking share reform: Three Towns; One foreign-funded club: Xinpeng City.
In terms of stability, the wholly state-owned enterprise club is the most stable and can show sufficient competitiveness, the only exception is Yatai, whose financial strength is insufficient; The next most stable are the private sector clubs that are managed by the government and funded by the government. Although the competitiveness of these two shareholding structures is completely different, the responsibilities and rights are clear.
The most volatile are mixed-ownership clubs. In the past, Henan and now Zhejiang were mixed ownership clubs of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, and there was a phenomenon that private enterprises no longer invested. As for Taishan, which is jointly held by central enterprises and local governments, there are different views on capital allocation and development concepts, and it also shows a certain degree of instability.
One trend is that almost all Chinese Super League clubs are now seeking direct financial support from the government, or directly seeking state-owned enterprises to become shareholders or even wholly owned by state-owned enterprises, and the vast majority of fans are also pinning their hopes on the government and state-owned enterprises. But in fact, there are still many private enterprises in China that are strong and do not lack cash flow, but they are generally reluctant to invest.
In view of the current situation, the direction of China's football share reform is still dominated by the government and state-owned enterprises, which is also the current direction of share reform in Zhejiang and the three towns. However, from the perspective of long-term development in the future, if Chinese football wants to show real vitality, more private enterprises participate and invest, which is the direction. Regarding this direction, the first is to gradually change the public opinion environment of Chinese football, which is the concern of some large private enterprises; The second is policy guidance, and the main policy direction is the corresponding tax exemption policy and other incentive policies.
At present, several clubs with difficulties, such as Guoan, Taishan, Zhejiang, Three Towns and Cangzhou, need to completely solve the hidden worries at the equity level in a reasonable way and embark on the road of stable development. Among these clubs, Taishan and Zhejiang have always been known for their youth training, which is the stabilizer of the development of China's professional league and Chinese youth football; In addition, only three clubs are consistently in the top flight, with Guoan and Taishan occupying two; Wuhan youth football is growing rapidly, and the city also needs a stable top club.
After focusing on solving several difficult clubs, another development direction of the current professional league is refined management. As we all know, the Chinese Football Professional League has gone through two comprehensive anti-gambling crackdowns, but the club's mismanagement and even corresponding corruption, such as duty violations and crimes, still exist.
In the context of the current salary limit of 5 million yuan before tax for local players and 10 million euros before tax for the total salary of foreign players, 400 million yuan is theoretically enough for a top club. A simple calculation can be concluded that 10 local players with the highest salary + 10 local players at the level of 2 million + 10 local players at the level of 500,000 (youth players), the total amount is only 75 million yuan; The total remuneration of foreign aid is 10 million euros before tax, which is 80 million yuan; Based on the pre-tax bonus of 3 million yuan and 20 wins in a season, the maximum bonus is 60 million yuan.
In this way, the total cost of a team is only more than 200 million. Even if you add the cost of a high-quality coaching team and a security team, supplemented by operating funds and youth training funds, theoretically, 400 million is enough for the team to maintain the competitiveness of the championship and maintain a good level of youth training, of course, a youth training system like Luneng Football School, the funds spent on youth training may be more expended, if you participate in foreign wars, you may also need some funds, but the amount will not be too high, after all, the AFC also has corresponding bonuses and subsidies.
2025 is the last "year of historical baggage" for Chinese Super League clubs, because some clubs have signed some high-paid players at the end of 2020 due to the introduction of salary restrictions, but by the end of 2025 at the latest, this part of the historical burden will be able to get rid of it.
Of course, throttling is one thing, more importantly, open source, league investment, including the corresponding China Football Lottery is very necessary. At present, clubs attach great importance to the "matchday economy" and the development of derivatives, which can reduce the pressure on shareholders to allocate capital to a greater extent. It is gratifying that at present, the Chinese Super League, including some fans of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League B clubs, highly agree with the commercial development of the club, and the overall box office revenue and derivative income of the Chinese Super League have shown a good development trend.