Qingdao Manatee 2024 Summary: Stick to 20 years, the struggle and dilemma of Zhongneng

Reporter Chen Yong reports On December 2, the Chinese Football Association announced the list of the first batch of clubs to complete debt settlement, and Qingdao Manatee Football Club was among them. Although everything seems to be going well, the road ahead for Qingdao Manatee is not easy: after 20 years of persistence, it is already very difficult for China Energy Group to continue to support the club in the Super League alone - two years after returning to the Chinese Super League, there is no title sponsor, no chest advertising, no back advertising, no armband advertising, and the sustainable development of this private enterprise club is still difficult.

With a 32-year-old club that started in 1993, it's time for a different way of life if it wants to move forward steadily.

On November 3, 2013, at the Beijing Workers Stadium, after losing 0-1 to Beijing Guoan, Qingdao Manatee was unfortunately relegated from the Chinese Super League. This year is the 9th year that China Energy Group has taken over Qingdao Manatee. That afternoon, Qiao Weiguang, the club's investor and chairman of the group, hid his face and cried in the workers' stadium, which became a classic scene in the domestic professional football league.

From 2014 to 2022, another 9 years, Qingdao Manatee can only crawl in the two low-level leagues of China A and China B.

If you lose the east, you will gain the mulberry elm. In the lower league for 9 years, Qingdao Manatee was fortunate to avoid the "money burning competition" of Jinyuan football, and while they insisted on the low-level league, they also patiently worked campus football and youth training, and always maintained the spark, although weak but endless. During this time, they also witnessed the rise and demise of Qingdao Huanghai – a club that began competing in the second division in 2013 and disbanded after the end of the 2021 Chinese Super League season, which is exactly nine years.

The revival of Qingdao Manatee actually began in the 2021 season. At this time, the era of Jinyuan football has ended, Qingdao Manatee seized the historical opportunity, rushed from the second division to the Chinese league in the 2021 season, and rushed from the second division to the Chinese Super League in the 2022 season. At the celebration party of Manatee's overtaking ceremony, Qiao Weiguang burst into tears: "In difficult times, we persevered!" Super League, here we come! I don't want to go down anymore! ”

Time will test everything. In the first 9 years of the Chinese Super League, Qiao Weiguang was often troubled by public opinion, but after the second 9 years, he returned to the Chinese Super League, and the fans found that he had persisted for 18 years, and never gave up his dream, and finally returned to the Chinese Super League. At this moment, even the fans who have criticized him have to say: "Old Joe is not easy!"

Now Qiao Weiguang can naturally be called "old Joe", he was 52 years old when he returned to the Chinese Super League, and he is 54 years old this year - when he took over Qingdao Manatee at the end of 2004, Qiao Weiguang was only 34 years old, and the most energetic 20 years of an entrepreneur were closely linked to football.

Persistence earns respect, and persistence comes from dreams. To a certain extent, Qiao Weiguang is a very emotional person, because if he is rational, it is difficult to persist for so long in football investment that has nothing to do with the main business or even affects the main business.

A year ago, when the reporter interviewed Qiao Weiguang, he was particularly touched, he said that he had experienced too many ups and downs in the 9 years of the Chinese Super League, and in the later 9 years of the low-level league, many people even gave him a reason to quit, including pressure from within the group. "I just got off the donkey, but in the end, I persevered, relying on feelings, I have always regarded the team as my own child, and it is also my character." Qiao Weiguang said.

In the 2023 season, Qingdao Manatee's relegation journey is relatively smooth, although it also encountered difficulties in five consecutive defeats. Entering the 2024 season, the relegation situation suddenly became severe, when there were still 4 rounds left in the league, there were still as many as 8 teams fighting in the relegation circle, before the last round, Qingdao Manatee had not yet completed the relegation, and it was not until the last round was played that Qingdao Manatee completed the relegation.

In other words, in the 2024 season of the Chinese Super League, 8 teams are in the middle and upper reaches, and 8 teams have to fight for relegation. Among the eight clubs in the middle and upper reaches, Shanghai Port, Shanghai Shenhua, Chengdu Rongcheng, Shandong Taishan, Zhejiang and Henan are all state-owned clubs, and Tianjin Jinmen Tigers and Beijing Guoan have received financial support from local government departments.

Private clubs are having a hard time in the current Chinese professional football scene, even the two clubs that have invested in football for 30 years and 27 years, Jianye and Greentown, their private investors have withdrawn from Chinese football in the past two years.

The 8 clubs of the relegation group, the overall situation is good is Shenzhen Xinpeng City and Qingdao West Coast, the former belongs to foreign clubs, the latter is a private enterprise club, but there is support from the municipal and district governments, especially Qingdao West Coast New Area, hoping to build Qingdao West Coast team into a cultural landmark in the new area.

Of the remaining 6 clubs, Meizhou Hakka completed the 2024 season with the full support of the local government, especially state-owned enterprises, such as their chest advertisement is Guangdong Electric Power, and the armband advertisement is Xingfa Aluminum, but even then they were unfortunately relegated; Another relegated team, Nantong Zhiyun, operates at a small cost; Changchun Yatai and Cangzhou Lions belong to the clubs that are not going well with the share reform, and the three towns of Wuhan are also private enterprise clubs, and now they have embarked on the road of share reform, but the landing situation is still unknown.

Dalian InBev, which has just entered the Chinese Super League, although it is also a private enterprise club, has the support of provincial and municipal governments, and Dalian City has made every effort to attract investment for the club, at least for now, the survival situation is relatively optimistic; In Yukun, Yunnan, the provincial and municipal governments have expressed their support for it. At present, the survival mode of the Chinese Super League club is basically three modes: state-owned enterprise investment, trusteeship, government capital investment + investment guarantee. Such a model is obviously not healthy, and all parties are also calling on the Chinese Football Professional League to strive for more funding and policy support, and also calling on clubs to strengthen their operating capabilities, but the implementation of the former is unclear, and the latter is extremely difficult to operate.

Although Qingdao Manatee also has support funds from the city, it is a drop in the bucket, and in the 2024 season, it is also actively operating the team's title sponsor, chest advertising, back advertising and armband advertising, but nothing has been found.

In the 2023 season, Qingdao Manatee, who returned to the Chinese Super League, moved their home stadium to Qingdao Youth Football Stadium, a professional football stadium that is unparalleled in the look and feel of the game, which detonated the enthusiasm of the fans, and after beating Beijing Guoan 3-1 at home in the third round of that season, the enthusiasm of the fans was even higher, and in this season, Qingdao Manatee also defeated Chengdu Rongcheng at home.

This year, Qingdao Manatee's box office revenue was several times that of previous years, deducting venues, security, electricity and other expenses, with a profit of more than 10 million yuan, close to 15 million yuan. The enthusiasm of the fans made the club very happy, and Zhang Dong, general manager of Qingdao Manatee Club, also sighed when he recalled the annual meeting of the fans in the past, when the annual meeting of the fans club could be opened in a beer house, and twenty or thirty people drank together to count the annual meeting, but now, the annual meeting of the fans must be chartered in a large banquet hall of the hotel to be held.

The 2024 season of the Chinese Super League is clear and weak, and it is difficult for Qingdao Manatee to replicate the record against strong teams: against Shandong Taishan, when the Taishan team was in internal and external difficulties, Qingdao Manatee finally lost the goal in stoppage time and was killed; Against Beijing Guoan, the opponent was sent off in the first half, and Qingdao Manatee only drew 1-1 with the opponent; Against Shanghai Shenhua, the opponent played one less in the 21st minute, but Qingdao Manatee still lost 0-1. As for the games against Shanghai Port and Chengdu Rongcheng, Qingdao Manatee lost by a big score at home.

The obvious difference in strength makes it difficult for the middle and lower reaches of the team with less investment to create miracles, which directly brings about a decline in the box office of the ball market, and in the 2024 season, the box office revenue of Qingdao Manatee will drop significantly. This situation is not unique to Qingdao Manatee, and the box office situation of downstream clubs is generally bleak, and the current troubled Cangzhou Lions and Shenzhen Xinpeng City, which are almost relegated, are even more bleak.

The decline in the income of the ball market, coupled with the little and almost no sponsorship income, the income of the club, one of which comes from the government's support funds, and the other is the box office income and league dividends, but this is far from enough, and the rest can only be invested by Zhongneng Group. Continuous, high capital investment, this is indeed too much pressure for an ordinary private enterprise.

For the admission of the new season, although Qingdao Manatee is in the first list of completed debt settlement, the club is not completely free of arrears, but the local players have a trusting attitude towards the club, which stems from the fact that Qingdao Manatee has been controlling the overall debt amount at a relatively low level for 20 years, and the lighter historical burden has also laid a good foundation for future reform and development.

In that interview at the end of 2023, Qiao Weiguang once had a clear roadmap in the club's equity diversification reform plan: "In terms of equity diversification reform, our attitude has always been open, if Qingdao Manatee only relies on Zhongneng Group, the future may still be ups and downs, only by working together, the football in Qingdao, the football city, will get better and better." In fact, there are many complete solutions for equity diversification reform and subsequent management, including a variety of different methods, such as mixed equity reform, investment in capital models, or support for venue bases and other supporting measures. No matter what way, we should form a joint force, and then build a reasonable team based on the basic principle of the company system, everything will naturally get better and better, and I am very much looking forward to Qingdao Manatee to have better development in the future. But a year later, the situation of the Qingdao manatees has not changed much. If this continues, the private club's future in professional football will remain uncertain.