Interview with Liu Hong, Deputy Secretary of Dalian Municipal Party Committee: In Barracuda Bay, you can hear the heartbeat and pulse of the city

Reporter Liu Xiaoxin and Liu Xiangyu report We don't intend to exaggerate the significance of the "Enough Dreams" mayor's connection, but at the level of football, we think it's at least a meaningful thing. Chinese football, as the weakest link in the field of powerful Chinese sports, is actually facing a strategic adjustment and reshuffle related to its own destiny and future development. More precisely, this project is the most difficult to pursue landmark achievements in China, but in terms of urban management, quality education and urban cultural and tourism economic development, etc., it affects the nerves of the most extensive and largest number of people.

Therefore, we actually just want to let the leaders of those cities that have always attached importance to or are beginning to attach importance to football, as the designers and leaders of urban development, take a time to talk about the consideration and positioning of football, and their ideas and insights may make every football practitioner and follower in this city, every coach, every principal, including every team investor, manager, and even every player and fan, more aware of what they like. What exactly does it mean for the city?

Liu Hong, deputy secretary of the Dalian Municipal Party Committee, may be more attracted to us by his other identity: the head of the Dalian Football Restructuring Group. His acceptance of our offer is at least a testament to the prioritization of football in his work schedule and agenda. Dalian, whether it is officially defined or conventional, is enough to be called China's football city, but our city trip starts from Dalian, not only because of their former glory, but more importantly, the hardware facilities of Dalian Football Training Center, which are still amazing to Europeans, the playground of Dongbei Road Primary School, and the surge of Barracuda Bay Stadium, all interpret the city's continuous fascination with football and the passion for changing the old to the new.

We are not sure whether it is appropriate to describe Liu Hong, deputy secretary of the Dalian Municipal Party Committee, but Liu Hong, who appeared at the Dalian Barracuda Bay Stadium and the interview location agreed by the two parties, did give us our first impression, which was like this, plain and cordial. Just like one morning, the uncle who had just returned from buying vegetables from a nearby vegetable market was in good spirits and friendly, humming a little song while not forgetting to touch the heads of the children who were hurrying to school. The children responded politely, but they didn't know what the smiling person in front of them had to do with their daily lives.

It should be said that the Barracuda Bay Stadium gave us an apt and pleasant dialogue scene. This brand-new professional football stadium is worthy of the beauty of Dalian, but also can accommodate the enthusiasm of Dalian fans, sitting in the stadium box with a wide field of vision and a bright background, facing the four cameras with bright lights in front of you, there is no obscurity and heaviness on the topic of football, only wanton flow of feelings, and rational and focused thinking.

Liu Hong, perhaps in his student days, had the memory of occasional electrocution in football, but he definitely did not receive any formal training, let alone a real die-hard fan, but now, as the leader of the Dalian Football Restructuring, he has to face football problems almost every day. His understanding of football is simple and unpretentious. The so-called professionalism is obviously not the absolute standard of the project itself based on technology and tactics, but the sense of position and direction in different roles, which determines Liu Hong's management philosophy in the position of the leader of the foot restructuring team.

◆Reporter: Let's put aside the role of government officials and try to talk about your understanding of football from the perspective of a pure fan.

Liu Hong: It is undeniable that football is indeed the most concerned sport in the world, it is a collective sport, not only about everyone in it, but more importantly about the whole team, so it shows team spirit all the time. To put it simply, not everyone is destined to have the opportunity to intersect with football in their own lives, but if they have the opportunity to touch it, there must be a reason to like it and love it. One thing that made me feel particularly incredible, I didn't care about football for too long, and one night I came home late, and it turned out that my daughter-in-law was still sitting in the living room watching TV, what were you watching? Televised broadcast of the Premier League. I don't understand this, she knows that I am also in charge of football now, and occasionally asks and cares, but it seems that there is no need to come to make up for football in order to support my work, right? As a result, she told me that she didn't think about anything else, just that it was good-looking, really good-looking, and if you look at the level of people, the fierce scramble, the frenzied atmosphere, you can understand why so many people like football.

◆So now back to the perspective of a manager, what do you think of the significance of football to the city of Dalian?

Every city has its own characteristics, but when it comes to Dalian, it's impossible to avoid the word football. Similarly, it is impossible for the city's managers, especially those in charge of this field, to ignore the deep football DNA contained in the city's bones. I have summarized four key words, which can be regarded as my understanding of Dalian football.

In 1921, Mr. Fu Liyu, a famous newspaper editor and also your colleague, took the lead in establishing the first regular football team composed of Dalian people, the Zhongqing Football Team, and won many battles in the games with multinational crew members, which greatly increased the ambition of the Chinese. Now it seems that many coastal port cities have a good football foundation, probably related to the early opening up and exchanges.

The second is "glory", in 1946, the Dalian shipbuilding football team was established, in 1951, the brigade team composed of the team won the championship of the Northeast region football team in one fell swoop, and repeatedly defeated the Soviet Union's "lighthouse team", "coastal team", "artillery team", "aviation team" and other opponents, and gradually became a well-known workers' football team throughout the country. What makes Dalian people talk more is that in 1955, the Dalian shipbuilding team and the Central Sports Institute team formed the Chinese team, facing the visiting former Soviet Union Leningrad Zenit team, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and other party and state leaders came to watch the game, the game was wonderful, and finally drew 2-2, after the game, was cordially received by Mao Zedong and other party and state leaders. Of course, it has to be mentioned that after the rise of the professional league in 1994, the Dalian men's football team's eight championships and the Dalian women's football team won the country's highest level league championship seven times.

The third is "inheritance", those long history and glory, slowly integrated into the city's bloodline, become a distinctive characteristic in every Dalian person's body. Especially at present, every city needs a spirit, needs a common feeling of spiritual force, cohesion, for Dalian, football can best arouse every citizen positive, never admit defeat, never say die fighting and enterprising spirit.

That's why I think the fourth word is "responsibility." The work of the party and the government is to meet the needs of the people and satisfy their yearning for a better life. From this point of view, it is incumbent upon the municipal party committee and government to promote the healthy development of football, and for Dalian, this work is of even more special significance.

◆The first time I came to Dalian, it was in 1997, as a reporter to cover the top 10 matches in Dalian Golden State, we won first and then lost, but what I remember deeply is the moving scene of the whole audience singing "Singing the Motherland", that day, I was young and tearful for football in the stands. Dalian is probably the common and indispensable memory of the participants in this industry.

To put it in layman's terms, Dalian football has had ups and downs, but no matter what, if you give a little sunshine, it will be brilliant. From the first day I came to manage football, I told myself that we often say, "for the sake of the official, for the benefit of one party", that is, to do things for the city, for the people of the city, and to do what the people like. You don't contribute to this city at all, but when you retire and go home in the future, everyone can't think of you, and I don't think it's interesting to be an official. At my age, sometimes I think about the future, if one day I come to Barracuda Bay to watch the game, there are still people who recognize me, saying that it is Secretary Liu, who used to attach great importance to football, and it should be a very happy thing to think about it.

Two weeks ago, on the day of the "Re-taking the Long March Road" China Football Development Seminar, Ye Niuping, Mayor of Xi'an, asked Song Kai, chairman of the Football Association, what is the key city for football development? What should the key cities do? What can Xi'an do? Song Kai said with a smile that this is the "soul three questions" of key cities for football development. On May 31, 2024, the National Conference on Key Cities for Football Development was held in Shanghai, and then the relevant work implementation opinions were issued, which is probably the common "soul three questions" of the relevant leaders of the 16 key cities. As the leader of the Dalian Football Reform and Development Working Group, Liu Hong also could not avoid this issue, and this time, he still cut down the complicated and simplified, showing his consistent simple and simple management philosophy.

◆Reporter: As early as 1964, the project of key cities for national football development has been officially launched, but in the past few decades, it has been more like a formal marker. However, in the past two years, with the country's increasing attention to the development of football, this project has been pushed to an unprecedented height, becoming a demonstration project from point to area, and has played a very effective role in promoting the development of football, especially youth football, in terms of resource integration and unified standards. Dalian is undoubtedly a key city on the Chinese football map, how do you understand this work?

Liu Hong: There is a saying that at the level of football, Dalian is to China what Brazil is to the world. In my opinion, aside from the title of key city, Dalian people are infiltrated with football genes in their bones, and they can't develop football if they don't want to. However, from the perspective of urban construction, it is not that your city has a team, and that this team has a good result, which speaks for itself. To measure the development level of football in a city, or whether it is a key city in football development, a real criterion is to see whether it has a set of reasonable development systems, from youth training, to the construction of professional teams, to the management of social football. It may seem complicated, but it's actually quite simple, do you have a practical way to get more people on the pitch to play?

◆You're particularly right. The first thing for the development of a project is to make more people like it and be willing to participate in the project. Urban construction covers all aspects, but whether it is education, or grasp the economy, you have to build on the basis of a system, can you introduce to us, what kind of system is Dalian football? What are the considerations for this system? How is it implemented?

First of all, I have to say that our municipal party committee and municipal government have always put the promotion of football reform and development and the revitalization of Dalian football in an important position on the issue of football, and established a working group for the reform and development of football in Dalian City, which has made football work independent of other sports projects, and has formed a work pattern led by the party committee, led by the government, linked by departments, and participated by the whole people. Secretary Maoping has held many special meetings and made instructions and instructions to orient and clarify the ideas for the city's football reform and development work; Mayor Shaowang also personally served as the person in charge of the special class for the work of the national football development key city in Dalian, and went deep into the youth training echelon and professional clubs for research and guidance. This sounds like an official cliché, but the development of football in a city is an important part of urban construction, especially for Dalian, an indispensable city for football, the government's real support is very important, but it is by no means that the relevant leaders come out to say a few words that are not painful and can solve the problem, but the team members must really go to the front line and understand the actual situation, so as to ensure that the right medicine is prescribed.

When it comes to the system, the most important thing is, of course, to lay a solid foundation. Youth training is the foundation for the revitalization and development of football. We are making great efforts to strengthen the municipal youth training center, which is to ensure that Dalian's football talent echelon will not be affected at any time and develop steadily, so that children who practice in Dalian can train with peace of mind at any time. The most important of these is nothing more than the integration of religion and body in the true sense. It's a big topic, but it's basically about providing quality training conditions and an educational environment for children who play football.

We have been working hard to improve the competition system of youth football, forming a connection of "Principal's Cup", "District Mayor's Cup", "Mayor's Cup" and "Governor's Cup", cultivating football hobbies from kindergarten, establishing an event system covering from primary school to junior high school, high school to university, and building a platform for children to "train by competition", "promote teaching by competition" and "empower by competition". At the same time, we have specially formulated the "Dalian Youth Football Talent "One-stop" Training and Reform Pilot Work Plan" to establish a football talent growth system that connects primary school, junior high school, high school and university, and effectively solve the problem of disconnection from further education. The reason for this is to solve the fundamental concerns of parents about their children's growth, so that every child who plays football can truly realize that playing football well is a good thing that is guaranteed and recognized by society. Every one of our leaders is first and foremost the parents of our children, and we can't let the children feel that playing football is a helpless choice when they can't read well.

Secondly, social football must be taken seriously. We have devoted ourselves to creating the Dalian Football Super League, which covers the whole region, runs throughout the year, and participates in the whole people, which we call "Lian Super League", attracting more than 7,600 teams and nearly 200,000 participants, and the number of teams and the quality of the competition are the largest in history. The people who play on the field today are the parents of the present and the future, and social football will always be the driving force for the development of football in a city and a country.

In addition, we must take the event as the core and build a more complete professional football chain. With the help of the hot events of social football and the hot ball market of professional teams, the "game day economy", "night economy", "stall economy" and "weekend economy" are prosperous, and a series of activities such as "super good-looking", "super delicious" and "super fun" are carried out, and efforts are made to bring food, housing, transportation, travel and entertainment. It is a worldwide issue to make this sport truly closely linked to the clothing, food, housing and transportation of the people, and to promote the in-depth integration of urban culture, sports, business and tourism, but only in this way is the key to its real steady and far-reaching development.

There are many specific tasks that need to be faced and many specific problems that need to be solved in key cities for football development, but many things can only be done well and correctly if they are figured out and right. Football development is not a stereotypical task and assessment index, as long as more people see, kick and play, it has been a big step forward.

On the morning of the interview, we first went to Dalian InBev Club and met with Wang Kui, the club's investor. Since Wanda, Dalian's professional football has experienced the ups and downs of different periods such as Shide, Albin, Yifang and Dalian people, but no one thought that the little-known Wang Kui and Yingbo have become the flag bearers of the new era. Three years of triple jumping, living out of the myth of a grassroots counterattack, in 2024, in the Chinese League, but playing a miracle of more than 60,000 attendees in Barracuda Bay. With a lot of astonishing aura, Wang Kui sitting in front of us looked like he was young and abrupt for the first time. On the one hand, it seems that he has just experienced the trembling of the cruel college entrance examination, and on the other hand, he is about to face the unknown society on thin ice, but when he mentions our interview subjects in the afternoon, his eyes are red without warning. This has to make us, who are accustomed to hearing many complaints from investors about the government, have great curiosity.

◆Reporter: I especially want to know, what is it, what kind of support and help can make Wang Kui can't help but be moved when his name is mentioned?

Liu Hong: Really? If I had to find an answer, I thought, maybe I understand. Between people, the most rare thing is to compare hearts with hearts. Wang Kui is not easy, when he took over the team, even the closest people around him didn't understand, his daughter-in-law couldn't stop him, he was so angry that he ran away from home, and finally persuaded him to come back, and asked him unceremoniously, are you sick? Is it evil? If you have a good business and a good life, you have to suffer the sin of football? But Wang Kui was unmoved, and after every game, he called the fans for a curtain call, whether he won or lost, he was full of tears, and he told me that he liked this feeling of fighting for a city more than doing business.

Indeed, in my opinion, when a city needs football, he stands up, in addition to the love of football, it is more of a responsibility and responsibility. I didn't think so much about it, under such circumstances, if the government does not extend a hand and make efforts to solve some difficulties and problems in the process of development for him, it will be a dereliction of duty. Professional football and high-level professional competitions must be a platform for people to accumulate feelings and vent their passions, and they must also be an indispensable link and an important starting point in the development of football in a city.

◆Can you elaborate on the support the government has given to the club? In general, the government's attitude towards professional football, and the role it plays in professional football, is a topic worth exploring in itself.

To be honest, as the leader of the Dalian Football Reorganization, this is also one of my jobs, and more often than not, it is not only to guide, but also to solve a lot of practical problems for them. For example, the problem of the training base, the problem of the home stadium, and even the financing of some funds should be considered at the government level as much as possible from multiple channels. This team has not been smooth sailing along the way, and no one is optimistic about rushing to the Central League in 2024, and everyone thinks that it is a rookie team struggling on the relegation line. So, at the beginning, I was quite scratching my head about some details. For example, where is the home stadium set? Barracuda Bay is such a beautiful stadium, which can be called a landmark building in Dalian, and many people are talking about it, and it will not be ruined to put a Chinese A team in the game? I almost didn't break my leg for this matter, and repeatedly stated to all aspects that we are now at the level of the middle league, but we can use the results to enhance its influence in this stadium, and use the results to create a new check-in place for Dalian, and they really did it step by step.

Later, we thought, how can more people come to such a beautiful stadium to watch high-level events? The stadium has a capacity of less than 65,000 people and cannot exceed 80% of the attendance due to the league's security regulations. So I went to coordinate with the public security department, and I was also the secretary of the political and legal committee at that time, which was also an advantage, so I told them, you go to a stress test, not to mention that the seats are full, if there are no more than 60,000 people, then you will never know, when 60,000 people are in the state of watching the game, what should you do with that security specification? In the last game, 60,951 people attended, not including security and staff, and for professional football, these questions are worth considering.

◆After rushing to the Chinese Super League, in 2025, this team may encounter more and bigger problems.

Not maybe, but for sure. They must be prepared for the most difficult psychological situation, as the government, I think first of all we should build a bigger and better platform for them, at present, the government has contacted several enterprises, in the existing policy conditions, can be engaged in a joint-stock reform attempt. On the one hand, this is a model and channel for more forces to join in, and on the other hand, it is also a direction to make professional clubs bigger and stronger. I heard that there are 11 state-owned enterprises participating in the team in Guangzhou, and we should learn more from the open-minded and economically developed southern cities.

All in all, the development of football in a city is a comprehensive project, and we cannot solve all the problems at once, but again, as long as we sincerely and make efforts to do what the people like, there are always more ways than difficulties.

At the end of the interview, Liu Hong took the reporter's hand with great interest, and walked from the box to the court, just like introducing his own well-designed living room to the guests.

He said to us with pride, "how smooth this stadium is", "how well maintained this turf", "this side is the south stand, this side is the north stand, every game, the fans on both sides of the stand can drive the atmosphere of the whole stadium". He looked up at the blue sky above the stadium, "It's the shipping lane, and every game night when we fly over by plane, the whole stadium is brightly lit and beautiful. On the night of the Chinese team's game, someone saw in the sky that there was a sea of red below."

"Now, whenever I have time, I will definitely go to the stadium because it is a place where I can hear the heartbeat and the pulse of the city."