The separation of management and management will be implemented next year, and the division of labor between the Chinese Football Federation and the Football Association will be clear

Reporter Lu Mi reports At the "Re-taking the Long March Road - Chinese Football Development Seminar", Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, made it clear when talking about the work of the league that the separation of management and management should be carried out from next year. The topic of the Chinese Football Federation has once again attracted great attention.

Since the "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football" released in 2015 proposed to "establish a professional league council with independent corporate legal personality", after 9 years, the establishment of the Chinese Football Federation has moved forward slowly, and has gone through many difficulties in terms of nature, registered name, registration place and division of powers, and has finally landed. On December 19, the three-level professional league working conference was held in Beijing, and Li Kemin, who will play an important role in the organization of the Chinese Football Federation, met with the club's representatives. The meeting carried out a number of topics, about the separation of management and management, and about the future work responsibilities of the Chinese Football Federation, all gave some answers.

The Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football (hereinafter referred to as the "Football Reform Plan") released in 2015 put forward specific requirements for "reforming and improving the construction and operation mode of professional football clubs" and "improving and improving the football competition system and professional league system". For the professional league management body, the "Football Reform Plan" puts forward clear requirements: "Adjust the formation of the professional league council." Establish a professional league council with independent corporate legal person qualifications, responsible for organizing and managing professional leagues, and reasonably build a Chinese Super League, Chinese League A and Chinese League B league system. The Chinese Football Association supervises the Council from the aspects of basic policies and systems, club access review, discipline and arbitration, and decisions on major matters, and sends representatives to serve on the Council. The Council sent representatives to the Chinese Football Association to participate in the discussion and decision-making of relevant issues. ”

The "Football Reform Plan" clearly states the nature and responsibilities of the professional league council and its relationship with the Chinese Football Association, but in the nine years since its release in 2015, there has been no substantial progress in the formal establishment of the Chinese Football Federation.

In May 2016, the Chinese Football Association held a preparatory meeting for the "China Professional Football League" at the Xianghe base, and 52 Chinese Super League, China League A and China B clubs sent representatives to participate. Since then, the follow-up to the establishment of the professional league has not been carried forward due to the failure of the parties to reach an agreement.

At the 3rd General Meeting of the 10th Chinese Football Association held in January 2017, Cai Zhenhua, then chairman of the Chinese Football Association, announced that the professional league would be formally established in March of that year, and explained the reason for the delay in the preparatory work, which was caused by the lack of work in the preparatory group, and the reorganization of the preparatory group.

In October 2018, the Chinese Football Association said at the summary meeting of the professional league that it would further deepen the separation of management and management and promote the establishment of the professional league in 2019. At that time, the main leaders of the Chinese Football Association stated that they would delegate power to the professional league as much as possible: the Chinese Football Association enjoyed the ownership and supervision of the professional league; Professional leagues enjoy the right to manage, operate and distribute profits of professional leagues.

From May to the end of 2019, there were many discussions about the establishment of the professional league, including the head of the preparatory team by Chen Xuyuan, then chairman of Shanghai SIPG Group, which also became an important signal that he was about to be elected as the new chairman of the Chinese Football Association. Later, the preparatory group of the professional league was established again, and a number of clubs sent representatives to the preparatory group to carry out work, and the investors of 12 clubs jointly requested to speed up the establishment of the professional league. At the end of the same year, after Chen Xuyuan was elected as the new chairman of the Chinese Football Association, "accelerating the establishment of a Chinese professional football league with independent legal person qualifications" was written into the report of the new football association leadership team, but the professional league, which was originally scheduled to complete all the approval processes and be established at the end of November 2019, was postponed again due to the complicated procedures for registering an independent legal person organization.

In July 2021, the preparatory group of the Chinese Professional Football League was officially launched, and Shi Qiang served as the leader of the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation, and Liu Jun, chairman of the Chinese Super League, served as the deputy leader. The Chinese Football Federation has been operating the professional league as a preparatory group, and in this process, it has the right to speak in terms of schedule, competition system, league preparation, and referee appointment, and the Chinese Football Association is responsible for the work in terms of access, salary limit order, disciplinary punishment, and referee evaluation.

During this period, the Chinese professional league has experienced the madness of Jinyuan football, and also experienced the impact of the epidemic for three years, and the football market has fallen from the peak to the low ebb. In the 2021 season, the Chinese Super League was split from two stages into three phases, reducing the originally planned 30 rounds of fixtures to 22 rounds. With 176 days of off-season in a full season year, it's rare in world football. The team often played an intensive schedule of three days and one game, followed by a break of more than two months, which is not at all in line with the rules of football. The important reason for this decision was not only the impact of the epidemic at that time, but also for the national football team to impact the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The end result was an early exit of the national football team, a league that had become fragmented after making huge sacrifices, and many struggling clubs had to bear the operating costs for longer than previous seasons, which was even worse.

In recent years, the level of domestic football has declined significantly, the commercial value has shrunk, and the survival of professional clubs has been difficult. Song Kai mentioned at the "Re-taking the Long March Road - Chinese Football Development Seminar" that the revitalization of Chinese football should be "six measures at the same time", the fourth point of which is to build a good competition system, "system stability is the premise, competitiveness is the goal, and then improve in the competition." "How can we make our league run better? How the Chinese Football Federation plays its role in the future is quite important.

At the Chinese Football Development Seminar in Xi'an, Song Kai mentioned that the separation of management and management will begin at the beginning of next year, and after the official establishment of the Chinese Football Federation, the Chinese Football Association will only be responsible for the national team, youth training, social football and other specific work. This is a very positive signal, first of all, the establishment of the Chinese Football Federation has been finalized again, and secondly, the Chinese Football Association has a clearer attitude towards the degree of separation of management and management.

After returning to Beijing from Xi'an, Song Kai participated in the third-level league work meeting. The league work conference was attended by Song Kai, Yang Xu, leaders of the Football Association, and Li Kemin, head of the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation. The meeting once again made it clear that the Chinese Football Federation is about to be established, and in the future, it will cooperate with the Chinese Football Association to jointly contribute to Chinese football and professional leagues, and truly achieve the separation of management and management. The Chinese Football Federation will become a "national civil society".

In the previous three or four years, the Chinese Football Federation participated in the management of the league as a preparatory group, during which it encountered multiple obstacles, such as the nature and definition of the organization, the name and location of the registration, and even the obstruction of relevant personnel in the process of carrying out the work, but now these long-standing backlogs have been resolved with the promotion of the national level.

After the formal establishment of the Chinese Football Federation, the relevant situation has gradually become clear, which is mainly reflected in the positioning and status of the Chinese Football Federation, the degree of separation of management and management, and the personnel arrangement of the third-level league clubs in the Chinese Football Federation.

The positioning and status of the Chinese Football Federation At the league work conference on the 19th, it was first determined that the relationship between the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation is a parallel leveling relationship. The meeting emphasized that the Chinese Football Federation and the Chinese Football Association should contribute to the league and realize the real separation of management and management, and the nature of the Chinese Football Federation is defined as a "national civil society".

The league work conference on the 19th has a substantial role in promoting the establishment of the Chinese Football Federation as soon as possible.

The degree of separation of management and management The degree to which the separation of management and management, which is of greatest concern to the outside world and which is the most important, is now basically clear. After the official establishment of the Chinese Football Federation, the Chinese Football Association will manage the national team, youth training, and social football in the future, and the management of the professional league will be taken over by the Chinese Football Federation. The Chinese Football Federation will be responsible for the day-to-day operation and management of the third-level professional league of Chinese football, including the formulation of schedules, competition systems and competition rules, the organization of competitions, and the formulation of foreign aid policies to ensure the smooth operation of the league. The Chinese Football Association will be responsible for or involved in league access, financial fairness policies and very important supervision.

After the establishment of the Chinese Football Federation, the degree of separation of management and management is the focus, the State General Administration of Sports will give the Chinese Football Federation more responsibilities and powers, and the Chinese Football Association will also actively cooperate, however, the club should show a strong sense of rules and contract spirit through its own efforts, which is also the key to the division of responsibilities and rights after the establishment of the Chinese Football Federation.

Personnel arrangement for the third level of the league In terms of the internal personnel arrangement of the Chinese Football Federation, this meeting also has some highlights. Previously, some media reported in mid-November that "the newly launched domestic professional league governing body is close to being established." At the invitation of the relevant parties, Li Kemin (pictured above), former director of the Tianjin Sports Bureau, has gone to the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Federation after the National Day holiday this year to participate in the preparatory work for the new professional league management body. "At the three-level professional league work conference held on the 19th, Li Kemin attended for the first time with the leaders of the Football Association, which indicates that her future identity will be the head of the Chinese Football Federation. At present, it is not clear what other personnel arrangements will be made after the establishment of the Chinese Football Federation, but people with rich experience in league management will become important members of the Chinese Football Federation.

At the meeting, representatives of the third-tier league clubs voted on the members of the Chinese Football Federation. In the future, the councillors will be responsible for the formulation of their own league rules and regulations. The third-tier league clubs voted for 4 representatives of the Chinese Super League, 3 representatives of the Chinese Super League and 2 representatives of the Chinese Super League, but the final members of the council will need to be formally decided and announced at a later meeting, and normally speaking, they will enter the Chinese Football Federation Council.

In the development of Chinese football, the separation of management and management has always been one of the key points of reform, and the establishment of the Chinese Football Federation marks a major change in the management system of the Chinese Football League. Today, when Chinese football people are looking forward to the recovery of professional leagues and the revitalization of Chinese football, the Chinese Football Federation should promote the process of professionalization and marketization of Chinese football, especially under the responsibility of being responsible for the management and operation of the league, improve the professional level, spectacle and commercial value of the league, and make more reasonable decisions for the interests of the club and the development of football.