How to "live better" in professional teams: do a good job in management and youth training

Reporter Lu Mi reports As we all know, China's professional leagues have experienced a period of golden yuan football, which has had a far-reaching impact. Many clubs have a large area of salary arrears, are in a deep existential crisis, and have to carry out share reform to "survive".

After the share reform, many clubs have "survived", but how to "survive" and "live better" is a problem that Chinese football practitioners need to consider at this stage. Even Shanghai Shenhua, which seems to be in an ideal situation, is gradually reducing its budget, which is the first step to make the club "live well". With the support of the government and even the support of the bottom, all clubs need to achieve unity of thought and action, and improve their management capabilities, which is the key to the development of football.

When talking about the stability of the league, Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, said: "The competition system is very unstable, and we must first pursue stability. System stability is the premise, and competitiveness is the goal. "On the basis of stable operation, we will strive to enhance the competitiveness of professional clubs. Under the mainstream trend of equity reform, clubs should give full play to the subjective initiative of more independent operation, develop diversified operation models, and let professional clubs open their minds and take multiple measures on the road of professionalism, industrialization and marketization, so as to achieve the effect of a hundred flowers blooming.

Gu Jiqing, chairman of Shenhua Club, said when introducing the process of Jiushi taking over Shenhua Club: "I think Shanghai Shenhua is first and foremost a very famous and long-lived football brand in Shanghai. It can be said that many old Shanghainese have deep feelings for football. The previous shareholders are going to withdraw, and the city is also very important, hoping that we can continue to operate this brand well. At that time, the football reform had entered a very critical moment, and Jiushi, as a backbone state-owned enterprise, undertook many reform tasks. Jiushi has been deeply involved in the sports industry for a long time and has more resources and industrial layout, so he took over Shenhua at this time. ”

For Jiushi Group, after taking over the club, it is indeed a great challenge to make the Shenhua brand and this club truly operate in a long-term and orderly manner, and maintain a high level of competitiveness, so that all Shenhua fans are satisfied. Even relying on an international metropolis like Shanghai, when asked whether Shanghai Shenhua Club can break even in the 2024 season, or whether the gap between income and expenditure is not large, Gu Jiqing still gave a very honest answer: "I believe that the answer to this question given by any club is unified, but it is impossible." ”

Gu Jiqing believes that there is still a long way to go in terms of professionalism, industrialization and marketization of football clubs, "I think this is why after this round of football reform, more state-owned assets have entered or more local governments have directly and indirectly intervened." "Now professional clubs and investors are inevitably facing a problem, that is, how to achieve a healthy input-output ratio, which requires the support and guidance of the government and state-owned assets.

Will the professional clubs of the future only rely on the single investment of the government and state-owned enterprises? Obviously, the answer is no. "Professional clubs need to keep exploring. What we can do now is to reduce the club's dependence on simple investment from investors through the quality and orderly management of our operations as much as possible. Gu Jiqing said that any market must be diversified in order to move forward along the road of professionalism.

Unity of thought and action is the key to the operational transformation of professional clubs. In the 2024 season of the league, many clubs have vigorously focused on operation and increased club income. For example, after opening the naming rights of the team this year, Henan Club reacted extremely quickly, and Henan Club became the first team in the 2024 Chinese Super League to have a first-team title, with a naming fee of more than 10 million yuan. In addition, the club opened a special number for live streaming in October this year, trying to sell club peripheral products and sporting goods through live webcasting, radiating to the products of relevant partners, and achieving an average audience of 6000+ people in the duration of the live broadcast of 90-150 minutes, which once rushed to the first place in the whole network sporting goods with goods in a certain period of time, which is also an important step in opening up and reducing expenditure.

Chengdu Rongcheng's average attendance this year is 39,818, ranking second in the Chinese Super League. At the same time, the club opened the mini program of the peripheral mall, and the product income launched was very considerable.

Tianjin Jinmen Tigers are under the trusteeship of the Sports Bureau this season, supported by a number of state-owned enterprises, and they strive to build the club's brand culture and influence, while seizing the opportunity to improve their performance, relying on the allocation of government resources under the trusteeship to attract sponsorship. In November this year, Yu Genwei, general manager of Jinmen Tiger, conducted a live broadcast on the whole network for the first time, and the attention and traffic data obtained were gratifying, and Jinmen Tiger intends to make more attempts in this aspect in the future.

Yunnan Yukun, the champion of this year's Chinese League and the new army of the Chinese Super League next year, is also actively seeking independent investment under the single investment method of private investors this season, but because of the club's experience and other reasons, the proportion of actual income that can subsidize expenditure is not high. However, after the team won the championship of the Chinese Super League, relying on the hot home atmosphere, it quickly started the investment promotion work of the new season, and has received invitations from some local enterprises to take the initiative to cooperate, which is the new momentum felt by the new army of the Chinese Super League in the process of in-depth professionalism and marketization.

In the 2024 season, with the support of the national and local governments, combined with the spread of new consumption methods, the overall situation of the Chinese football market has rebounded significantly. The support of fans and the spiritual and cultural influence of a professional club on a city have a tendency to gradually develop market value. Li Ming, general manager of Guoan Club, said in an interview with this newspaper: "Our business operation has not yet formed a high proportion of the club's income, and the future needs the entire football industry, the Chinese Football Association, and the Chinese Football Federation to guide, and the club to achieve independent operation in the market." In particular, I want to say that while we want to reduce our operating costs, it doesn't mean that we want to lower the level of competition. This is not only conducive to the development of Chinese football, but also conducive to the viewing experience of football games, and can also promote the development of the national team. This is a shared responsibility of professional leagues and professional clubs. ”

In the process of developing professional leagues and professional clubs, different clubs have different views. Gu Jiqing believes that what the clubs need to do at the moment is to find a breakthrough point and form a more positive surface. "The most fearful thing is that you will either swarm or retreat en masse. I think everyone still needs to unify their thinking and find the breakthrough point first. For example, the results of the national team, or the market-oriented operation of professional clubs, or the construction of youth echelons. ”

The echelon construction of professional clubs is an important part of the club. At this seminar, Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, had a lot of discussions with the senior management of various professional clubs. Song Kai talked about the reflection of Spanish basketball when it lost to the Chinese national men's basketball team in the group stage of the men's basketball World Cup in the 90s of the last century, "Football is the same as basketball. They also chose the best coach to do youth training, and then took the international route, and won the world championship more than ten years later. Therefore, we must do a good job of coaching and young people. ”

However, judging from the current situation, most professional clubs focus on the results of the first team and the operation of the club, and few clubs balance the construction of their own youth echelon. At the roundtable meeting on the evening of the 17th, many club executives talked about the club's main economic strength and capital investment in the first team, and less investment in the construction of the youth echelon.

Chen Yong, the chief reporter of this newspaper, put forward a constructive suggestion earlier: "Football Association and professional club practitioners, if we grasp the bottom line of young people, we will be worthy of our hearts, and the difficulties of fighting the economic battle will be solved." ”

Li Ming, general manager of Beijing Guoan Club, said: "Our biggest problem now is the lack of more good players to compete healthily. A lot of players are spending too much time in their comfort zone, so clubs need to have more young players to compete with them if it makes sense. But many clubs do have some pressure at the decision-making level and on the investor side, because everyone seems to think that there is an irreconcilable contradiction between developing young people and achieving results. Actually, in my opinion, this is controllable. Li Ming believes that as long as the club strengthens the structural management system, vigorously develops youth training with a professional team, and has benign operation and management methods, there will be no such contradictions.

Zhou Peijian, general manager of Shandong Taishan, said when introducing Luneng Football School: "We have insisted on it for decades, with an annual fixed investment of more than 65 million yuan. We adhere to the elite training, at present, Shandong Taishan's youth training system is an 'integrated strategy', more than 400 students, the first team players retired as coaches, good seedlings sent to the first team. While grasping the football school with one hand, and grasping the market-oriented operation with the other, we have also been planning the business model of Luneng Football School, hoping to realize the self-financing of Luneng Football School. "In 2024, Luneng Football will achieve outstanding results, ranking first among all youth training institutions in China, sending 74 players to national brands at all levels and 27 players to professional clubs in the third-level league.

Shanghai Jiading Huilong, the representative of the Chinese League, not only reached the goal of relegation in the 2024 season, but also completed the task of training young players. Zhang Yue, general manager of the club, said: "Our positioning is to focus on youth training. In 2013, the elite echelon began to be formed, the club has a total of 15 echelons at all levels of U8-U18, the expenditure of the first team and youth training is five or five, and now the children of 06 years have gradually played the main force in the league. What we hope is that civic enthusiasm will resonate more with local government leadership. I personally feel that there will be a large number of excellent players after the 2005 age group, and the club should pay attention to training, which is expected to drive the results of the national team in the future. ”

If the development of their own youth training is not ideal, they need to invest a lot of money in recruiting to enrich the first team to strive for results; Youth training is fruitful and can be benefited through the transfer of personnel. This is also a key part of the club's operation.