Taking stock of the top ten memories of Chinese football of the year, we summarize 2024 with "breakthrough".

This newspaper reporter group reports The year 2024 is about to pass in the blink of an eye.

Although Chinese football in 2024 is at a low ebb, there are also breakthroughs - the most encouraging thing is, of course, that the State Council held an executive meeting to study and promote the revitalization and development of football. The shining point in the gloom can make people see hope, and it is more worthy of being cherished: the anti-corruption and anti-crime case has entered the stage of pronouncement, and the ecological environment of Chinese football will improve; The formal establishment of the Chinese Football Federation has made a major breakthrough, marking a major change in the management system of Chinese football...... I hope that the breakthrough in 2024 can give birth to the harvest in 2025!

On December 16, Premier Li Qiang presided over an executive meeting of the State Council to study and promote the revitalization and development of football. The meeting pointed out that the revitalization of football is the key work of building a sports power, and it is necessary to intensify the implementation of various policies and measures to promote football work to a new level.

This high-level meeting is undoubtedly gratifying for Chinese football workers. On the night of the meeting and the release of the news, the heads of key football development cities, club investors, chairmen or general managers of various key football development cities across the country happened to be in Xi'an to participate in the "Re-taking the Long March Road - China Football Development Seminar" hosted by the "Football" newspaper.

After this meeting, the relevant policy documents will be released in due course, which is also a high-level policy document, and it can even be said that it is another heavyweight document after the 2015 "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football", which will inevitably play a positive role in the development of the entire Chinese football.

This role includes, but is not limited to: further raising the importance of football nationwide, especially the attention and support of local governments; further stimulate the passion and confidence of football workers across the country; Provide corresponding policies and suggestions at the specific level of football work, and comprehensively promote the development of Chinese football.

This meeting and the document to be released will be a comprehensive presentation of the football research conducted by relevant departments in the past three years, including the relevant football survey in 2022, the national football survey in 2023, and the comprehensive survey conducted by the General Administration of Sports of China and the Chinese Football Association in 2024.

With the convening of this meeting and the release of future policy documents, Chinese football is expected to usher in more down-to-earth and practical problem-solving relevant decisions and policies in 2025, which will play a positive role in promoting the healthy development of professional leagues and the all-round development of youth football, including the construction of national teams, key cities for national football development, and social football.

2024 is the final year of the first phase of the anti-corruption and anti-crime work in Chinese football, and the relevant personnel involved in the case have been publicly sentenced in this year, which indicates that the Chinese football ecology under the heavy management will achieve a fundamental improvement and create a favorable environment for further deepening football reform.

In January 2024, CCTV will broadcast the anti-corruption documentary "Continue to Make Efforts to Promote in Depth", and the people involved in the football field range from the former chairman of the Football Association, the head of the club to the players, involving a wide range of functional departments of the Chinese Football Association, and the intertwined black network is entrenched in all corners of Chinese football.

In March this year, the Intermediate People's Court of Huangshi City, Hubei Province, took the lead in pronouncing the verdict on those responsible for the Chinese football corruption case. Chen Xuyuan, the former chairman of the Chinese Football Association, who accepted a bribe of 81.03 million yuan, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first instance and deprived of political rights for life, which opened the prelude to the verdict of the anti-corruption case in Chinese football. Subsequently, Du Zhaocai, former deputy director of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China and former secretary of the Party Committee of the Chinese Football Association, Yu Hongchen, former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, Dong Zheng, former general manager of the Chinese Super League, Chen Yongliang, former executive deputy secretary general of the Chinese Football Association and former minister of the national team management department, Li Yuyi, former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, and Liu Yi, former secretary general of the Chinese Football Association, were sentenced in the first instance.

The verdict in the high-profile Li Tie case was pronounced on December 13, and the Intermediate People's Court of Xianning City, Hubei Province, sentenced Li Tie to 20 years in prison in the first trial. In terms of the management involved in the case, Liu Jun, the former chairman of the Chinese Super League, and Wang Xiaoping, the former director of the Disciplinary Committee of the Chinese Football Association, have not yet been sentenced.

On September 10, the Disciplinary Committee of the Chinese Football Association released the first batch of "banned" lists for anti-gambling and anti-crime in football, announcing that 43 people were banned for life, and 17 people were banned for 5 years.

The period from 2023 to 2024 is the year of governance in Chinese football - anti-corruption and anti-gambling and anti-crime governance, which leads to the need to rebuild the internal system of Chinese football, and the football diplomacy of Chinese football also needs to be restarted. It is gratifying that with the inauguration of the new leadership team of the Football Association headed by Zhang Jiasheng, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Chinese Football Association, and Song Kai, Chairman of the Chinese Football Association, the diplomatic work of Chinese football has gradually made progress and opened up the situation.

In December 2023, Song Kai and FIFA President Gianni Infantino met on the sidelines of the FIFA Council meeting; In October, Infantino met with Zhang Jiasheng and Song Kai in Shanghai, and Infantino said: "I further pledge FIFA's full support to the General Administration of Sport of China and the Chinese Football Association as they continue to move forward in this journey of cooperation that offers hope and opportunity through football." ”

A few days ago, Infantino extended holiday greetings to Song Kai, affirming the extraordinary achievements of the Chinese Football Association in the past year and creating countless exciting football memories, saying: "FIFA is full of confidence and looks forward to working with the Chinese Football Association to create more exciting milestones in 2025, the year of the FIFA Club World Cup." ”

For example, on December 16, Zhang Jiasheng met with Miyamoto Tsuneyasu, chairman of the Japanese Football Association, in Tokyo, Japan, and the two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on the extensive cooperation between China and Japan in the field of football. Previously, on October 30, 2023, on the eve of the AFC annual awards party, Song Kai met with AFC President Salman, and in addition, Song Kai also visited the Aspire Youth Training Center in Qatar and so on.

The Chinese Football Association is also actively seeking the support of the world's football powers for Chinese football. On November 12, the German Football Federation and the Chinese Football Association jointly announced the official launch of the second phase of the "Bundesliga Dream"! Previously, Song Kai received a pledge of support from the other party in a meeting with Philippe Diallo, the president of the French Football Federation, who has just been re-elected as president of the French Football Federation.

October 15, Qingdao. The national team, which has lost three consecutive games, finally ushered in the first victory of the round of 18, facing the Indonesian team, which is mainly naturalized players and obviously superior to its own strength on paper, the national football players fought tenaciously and defeated the opponent 2-1 with the goals of Baihelam and Zhang Yuning, and won the first victory in the round of 18. A month later, on November 14, Riba Bahrain, the away national football team defeated Bahrain 1-0 with Zhang Yuning's goal and won two consecutive victories in the round of 18.

Prior to this, the national football team experienced two thrilling and sad moments: in the round of 36 in March and June, the national football team drew with Singapore away and Thailand at home, and the qualifying situation became very critical. In the last round, the national football team lost 0-1 to South Korea, and the fate was no longer in their own hands, but a miracle happened: the tenacious defense of the Singapore team allowed Thailand to win only 3-1 in the end, and the national team advanced to the round of 18 with a narrow margin of goal difference.

In the first match of the round of 18 against Japan, the national football team lost 0-7, and then lost to Saudi Arabia and Australia in succession, and the first three consecutive defeats in the round of 18 greatly hit the confidence of fans.

At such a moment, the national football team won consecutive victories over Indonesia and Bahrain, reversing the disadvantage at once. At present, the first 6 rounds of the round of 18 are over, and the national football team has 6 points, although it is still ranked first, but Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are all with 6 points, and Australia, which ranks second, has only 7 points.

In the round of 18, the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Football Association adjusted the management of the national team in a timely manner, and through the management mechanism of the large national team of the "General Administration-Football Association-Club" and meticulous ideological work, the national football players were inspired to a large extent, and the national football players also showed their sense of honor and responsibility in the process, all of which translated into hard work and two consecutive wins on the field.

The "First National Youth Three Ball Games", jointly sponsored by the General Administration of Sport of China and the Ministry of Education, was held in Changsha City and Yueyang City in Hunan Province from November 20 to 28, 2024. According to the plan, the National Youth Three Ball Games will be held once a year.

It is worth noting that the results of the National Youth Three Ball Games are linked to the gold medals of the National Games, which means that there will be one of the three major ball games every year for the three years before the National Games, and there will be four gold medals in the National Games in a single event after a National Games cycle. If you achieve good results in the three major ball games, it will directly promote the overall results of all provinces and cities to participate in the National Games. This kind of event design has made provincial and municipal leaders pay more attention to the three major ball sports.

In the first Youth Three Ball Games, the Shandong team became the "big winner": all 6 participating teams advanced to the finals and won the championship in 4 of the events. This is due to the continuous cultivation of its reserves. In recent years, Shandong has given full play to the role of the province in a game of chess in the integration of sports and education, running sports schools in various modes, and running sports by social forces, and has further consolidated the youth talent base of the three balls by carrying out the "five major leagues" focusing on basketball, football and volleyball in colleges and universities and primary and secondary schools in the province.

On December 16, the executive meeting of the State Council studied and promoted the work related to the revitalization and development of football, pointing out that the revitalization of football is the key work of building a sports power, and it is necessary to increase efforts to implement various policies and measures to promote football work to a new level. The annual National Youth Games is also one of the major and specific measures to implement football policies and revitalize football. For a period of time, the level of domestic football competition has continued to decline, including the three major ball games, including football, will be able to reverse the unfavorable situation, change the downward trend, through the construction of the competition system, promote the strengthening of the three major ball players including football reserve talent training system, to attract more young people to participate in it. At present, there are many places in the cultivation of football project reserve talents showing a multi-channel and diversified trend, provincial team training, professional club echelon training, campus training have become an important model for youth football talent training.

The topic of the Chinese Football Federation was not mentioned for a long time in 2024, and it was not until the end of the year that Li Kemin, the former director of the Tianjin Sports Bureau, began to participate in the relevant work of the Chinese Football Federation, which brought this topic back into public view. On December 16, this newspaper held a "Re-take the Long March Road - Chinese Football Development Seminar" in Xi'an, at which Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, made it clear that it is necessary to separate the management and management from next year, and the establishment of the Chinese Football Federation has once again become a hot spot in football.

Since the 2015 "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football" proposed to "establish a professional league council with independent corporate legal personality", in the past 9 years, the formation of the Chinese Football Federation has been moving forward slowly, although the Chinese Football Federation has also participated in the management of the league as a preparatory group, but has encountered many obstacles in terms of nature, registered name, registration place and division of authority.

After participating in the "Re-taking the Long March Road - Chinese Football Development Seminar" in Xi'an, Song Kai immediately returned to Beijing to participate in the league work conference held on December 19. The league work conference clarified the focus of the work of the Chinese Football Federation after its formal establishment: first, in terms of the degree of separation of management and management, the Chinese Football Association will manage the national team, youth training, and social football in the future, and the Chinese Football Federation will be responsible for the daily operation and management of the three-level professional league, including the formulation of schedules, competition systems and competition rules, the organization of competitions and the formulation of foreign aid policies, etc., in terms of league access, financial fairness policies and very important supervision, etc., the Chinese Football Association will be responsible for or participate; Secondly, in terms of positioning and status, the Chinese Football Federation and the Chinese Football Association have a parallel and horizontal relationship, and the two will both divide labor and cooperate in the future. Although the organizational framework and personnel arrangements of the Chinese Football Federation have not yet been fully clarified, the formal establishment of the Chinese Football Federation will mark a major change in the management system of the Chinese Football League.

At the end of the year, when Chinese football was in ruins and needed to work together, the "Football" newspaper successfully organized a "Chinese Football Theme Class Meeting" and held a seminar with a very high standard.

From December 16th to 18th, the "Re-taking the Long March Road - 2024 China Football Development Seminar", jointly sponsored by Football News and Xi'an Sports Bureau, was held at the Xi'an Sports Training Center. Song Kai, Chairman of the Chinese Football Association, Cheng Xu, Head of the Youth Department of the Chinese Football Association (Football City Office), representatives of investors and general managers of the Chinese Super League and Chinese Football League clubs, as well as relevant persons in charge of 16 key cities for football development in China, gathered together to discuss major topics related to the development of Chinese football, such as youth training construction, grassroots football, construction of key cities for football development, and the ecology of professional clubs.

Local governments are paying more and more attention to football work, and the media and local governments jointly organize meetings, which is a new attempt in China's football circle. Creating a field of public opinion, hotly discussing, discussing and reaching a consensus is exactly the atmosphere that Chinese football urgently needs.

In the past, there was a lack of commonality between local sports bureaus and professional clubs, but now when the two sides have the same goal and need in-depth exchanges and concentration, the newspaper brings together industry managers, representatives of local sports bureaus and professional club speakers to discuss many issues in the development of Chinese football, with a view to forming a joint force.

At a major time when the State Council held an executive meeting to study and promote the revitalization and development of football, the convening of the "Re-taking the Long March Road - Seminar on the Development of Chinese Football" was timely. Chinese football has bottomed out, and all levels will be more closely united and integrated, and "Chinese football can be good" has become the mainstream tone of Chinese football work, which is the significance of "Re-taking the Long March Road - China Football Development Seminar".

From December 13 to 15, 2024, the 2024 Chinese Football Association Coaches Conference was held at Shanghai Sports University. The Chinese Football Association Coaches Conference was held every year in the past, but it was interrupted for 4 years due to the impact of the epidemic, anti-corruption and other factors.

Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, emphasized the role of coaches at the meeting: "If Chinese football wants to revitalize and develop, the key is to grasp the 'bull's nose' of the coaching team. ”

The last time was held in 2019, the "high-end coach learning conference", FIFA experts were invited to take the World Cup as a case, combined with the development trend of modern football and professional football to conduct a special study, this conference mainly took "the development trend of modern high-level football and the cultivation of elite youth talents" as the theme, invited members of the technical committee of the Chinese Football Association, representatives of professional clubs, youth training experts and a number of foreign experts from UEFA, the Premier League, the Netherlands and Germany to give keynote speeches. The development direction and management mode of professional leagues and youth training were discussed.

In this year's coaches' conference, the participants reached a consensus: the national team should establish a unified technical and tactical style on the basis of the four defenders; The youth echelon over 13 years old should establish a national league system, and only a complete league rhythm can really help young players improve and grow; With youth training as the core, pay close attention to the team of coaches. This is an important topic after the resumption of the coaches' conference, and it will also become an important driving force for the development of Chinese football in the future.

2024 is destined to be an extraordinary year for Dalian football. On January 17, 2024, Dalian Professional Football Club, which was relegated from the Chinese Super League, officially announced that it decided to withdraw from professional football due to the inability to resolve historical debts and the inability of the club to operate normally. This means that the famous football city of Dalian will disappear from the map of the Chinese Super League.

After 10 months, on November 3, 2024, Dalian InBev, witnessed by 60,951 fans, successfully surpassed Dalian Barracuda Bay Football Stadium, and the top league position of Football City was regained.

Throughout the 2024 season, Dalian InBev has fought tenaciously to bring a football feast to the city and Dalian fans. The last round of this year's Chinese League is a key game, 60,951 people walked into the stadium to cheer for Dalian InBev, Barracuda Bay Football Stadium once again refreshed the record of the number of spectators in the history of the Chinese League, such a number of spectators in the history of the Chinese Professional Football League can also rank second, second only to the 2012 season of the Chinese Super League Jiangsu Shuntian and Guangzhou Evergrande created 65,769 people, fully proving the heritage of Dalian football and the influence of the people.

After the 33-year-old Fei Yu scored a goal on behalf of Dalian InBev, he would always pull out the shin guards printed with the Dalian logo to show Dalian fans - Fei Yu, who transferred from the disbanded Dalian Renren team to Dalian InBev in early 2024, inherits the blue faith for Dalian football in his own way.

Dalian InBev Football Club's "InBev" is taken from the transliteration of the English "YOUNG BOY", which represents generations of Dalian football teenagers fighting for the city's football. It is expected that Dalian InBev, the new team of the Chinese Super League, and the football city that has regained the lost territory of the Chinese Super League will show the blue power of Dalian football in the 2025 season of the Chinese Super League.

For Chinese football, the league is the topic that runs throughout, and league policy has always been the focus of the topic.

On January 3 this year, the Chinese Football Association released a new policy for the 2024 season of the league, in which the foreign aid policy was updated, from the previous "7654" to "7655", that is, it was changed to a total of 7 people registered throughout the year, 6 people registered at the same time, 5 people registered, and 5 people played at the same time, of which the number of simultaneous appearances was changed from the previous 4 to 5.

There are two other new policies for the 2024 season: first, clubs are allowed to transfer in different places if they are eligible, but they cannot be transferred again in the next five years; Second, teams are allowed to be named.

A more significant policy change is at the level of adjudication management, and the core change is the introduction of a fully open adjudication evaluation system. In 2024, the Chinese Football Association issued a total of 26 referee evaluation reports for third-level professional leagues and women's football competitions. In addition, the notice of the "Implementation Rules for the Promotion and Relegation of Referees in the Professional League of the Chinese Football Association in 2024 (Trial)" issued in the middle of the season clearly stipulates the promotion and relegation of referees. At the same time, in the 2024 season, VAR has been introduced in some matches.

Now that the 2024 season has ended, the rules for the 2025 season are being worked out. At present, the rules for the 2025 season will remain stable, but the number of season registrations is planned to be changed to "27+8", the 27-man list is no age limit for foreign players plus local players, and the 8-man list is for U21 players, these 8 people can move freely in the first team of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese Super League B team, which will be more conducive to the growth of young players. In terms of refereeing rules, it is planned to further increase the number of matches using VAR in the 2025 season. As for the much-talked-about policy of increasing the number of foreign aid, there is a high probability that the launch will be delayed - the change or unchanged policy is based on the premise of ensuring the stable development of the league.