"Re-taking the Long March Road" 2024 China Football Development Seminar, the theme class meeting of Chinese football

Text/Liu Xiaoxin 2024 is destined to be an extraordinary year for Chinese football.

A few years from now, when Chinese football regains its footing, there will be people who will mention this year when recording this period of history, just like the words we use now when we look back on some significant historical periods, and this is likely to be a year that can be called a turning point for Chinese football.

This year, so much has happened. The Ministry of Education issued a document, the General Administration of Sports issued a document, the goal is clearly pointed to the integration of sports and education, pointing to youth football, especially the establishment of a through-type training system, in the past ten years, has gradually formed the internal circulation model of campus football, has been lifted the lid, at least in the popularization and elite training of two channels, for the future development of greater policy space and thinking direction; The National Football Development Key Cities Work Coordination Conference was held in Shanghai, and the relevant work implementation opinions were subsequently issued, and the key city projects were quickly upgraded to core projects to guide the future development of Chinese football. The professional league has experienced a period of severe pain and gradually entered a period of smooth transition, a significant sign is that whether it is managed by the Sports Bureau, wholly owned by state-owned enterprises, or overwhelmingly controlled by state-owned capital, Chinese football, which has been professionalized for 30 years, seems to have returned to that "state-owned" era; At the same time, a large number of football officials have been sentenced, in line with the habitual law of many important turning points, and the strong contrast often shows the determination to completely draw a line with the past, and shows the vitality of Wan Mu Chun in front of the sick tree.

All the information is like a pile of fragments, fleeting around us. How to define it? How to interpret it? To be more precise, it is a question of what kind of policy environment and what kind of background of the times is being faced by the entire Chinese football.

The past 30 years of Chinese sports have been a decade in which the Olympic strategy has been further systematized, scaled and targeted, and is an important parameter for China to build itself into a major sports country. From this point of view, the professional league has been the "vanguard" of China's sports exploration and marketization for 30 years, and it is also the loser in the rapid progress of sports.

In the future, in a documentary about Chinese football, there may be such a text: Standing in 2024, when various ideas collide fiercely, this sports power is rethinking the future direction of the national system, and even re-examining and examining Chinese football, a project that has been questioned and criticized, but has always received great attention. The unparalleled attention and participation of the whole people behind this project makes it possible for it to become an irreplaceable glue between all levels of society, between all industries, and between the government and the people. In this era of productivity with attention, Chinese football may be entering the government's agenda step by step.

China is a country that can unify policy guidance and macroeconomic regulation and control, mobilize social and national resources in a unified manner, and concentrate its efforts on doing great things. Football is specific and microscopic, but after decades of mud and sand, wild growth and free and loose process, back under the eyes of the organization, all aspects of Chinese football should at least sit down, exchange ideas, and figure out their own position and what they should do under a roughly unified system.

The process of China's rapid economic development is a process in which state-owned enterprises and private enterprises help each other to continuously spiral, which seems to be used to understand the development process of Chinese football. In 2024, all the information chains are pointing to the keyword "national advancement", a broad understanding of this economic term, which means the strengthening of the government's economic intervention or macroeconomic control. From campus football to the integration of sports and education, to the key cities of football development, to the large-scale state-owned mixed shareholding transformation of clubs, I am afraid that only those who are in it can realize where the power of macro-control is? The so-called advance and retreat are just different emphases in different historical periods.

The two most iconic attitudes of Chinese football: one is like a child who has done something wrong, forever repeating a painful review, and then forever repeating that there is a mistake that does not change, and that the mistake is repeated; Second, they will always shout the slogan of marketization and professionalism, and under the guise of being in line with international standards, they will use the pot of the system to bear the scourge of failure. In fact, the work of Chinese football at this stage is not to interpret the logic between advance and retreat, but to really calm down, see this era clearly, see clearly the high importance of the development of Chinese football, and then look at the ideas, then look at the actual moves, and then see if you can do this thing beautifully!

It should be said that this is the real purpose of the "Re-taking the Long March Road" Chinese Football Development Seminar. From the 16th to the 18th of this month, the ancient city of Xi'an will usher in a group of people who have a great voice in the Chinese football sector, they are either the club's investors, chairmen, general managers, or managers and heads of key cities for football development, Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, will systematically explain his understanding and ideas on all aspects of Chinese football for the first time in Xi'an. In his words, it is to let people in different positions of Chinese football talk about their understanding, talk about future suggestions, and so-called unify ideas and offer suggestions. As for why it is defined as "re-taking the Long March", it is nothing more than that Chinese football needs to learn from that arduous history, the spirit of living to die, and the attitude of seeking truth from facts and adapting measures to local conditions.

As a media that has grown up with Chinese football, we don't know what kind of mark we insist on doing in the future, we just hope that those who have gone through a long period of suffering with us, but have never given up looking for light, can cheer up, smooth out their heads, and get back on the road.

This is not a rambling church meeting, but a themed class meeting with a clear goal.