Reporter Wang Wei reports On January 6, the Chinese Football Association announced the 2025 season access list, because the Cangzhou Lions of the Chinese Super League were not admitted, Meizhou Hakka is expected to return to the 2025 season of the Chinese Super League. After receiving this information, Meizhou Hakka immediately sounded the assembly number: first, to notify the whole team to collect the holiday assembly, on January 7, the whole team has started winter training at the Wuhua base; On January 9, head coach Milan returned to China from Serbia and began to lead the team to train - this series of actions shows that Meizhou Hakka is eager to return to the Chinese Super League.

The first task of the new season: the old and the new

On November 2, 2024, Meizhou Hakka lost 1-2 away to Shandong Taishan and was unfortunately relegated, and then the whole team took a holiday and waited for the arrangement of the new season. Since last month, many Chinese Super League teams have started winter training, but Meizhou Hakka has not yet started winter training plans, and when faced with questions from players, the club only gave a reply of "continue to wait". It was not until January 6 that the Chinese Football Association announced the admission list, Meizhou Hakka acted quickly, notified all the players to assemble and start training immediately, and urged Milan to return to lead the team for winter training immediately.

Although the team has not been stationary before, the club has not been idle, and the construction of the team system for the new season, the determination of internal and external reinforcement targets and the adjustment of the club's management personnel have been in progress.

Judging from the performance of the previous two seasons, the age structure of Meizhou Hakka players is on the older side, so the main task of the new season is to complete the replacement of the old and new teams in the team. After the end of the 2024 season, there are many players in the Meizhou Hakka team whose contracts have expired, and Cheng Yuelei has joined the Shenzhen Youth Team, Pan Ximing and Ye Chugui will switch to Liaoning Iron Man and Yunnan Yukun respectively, and the 23-year-old defender Li Yongjia will also transfer to Tianjin Jinmen Tigers. Other players whose contracts expire may join other teams, but it has not been officially announced at this stage.

At present, Li Ning, Tian Ziyi, Wang Jianan, Guo Quanbo, Wei Zhiwei, Yang Ultrasound, Liao Junjian, Yang Yihu and other players still have contracts with Meizhou Hakka, and they will most likely stay in the team in the new season, and at the same time, a number of U21 echelon players have joined the training squad of the first team and are inspected by the coaching staff.

Milan, who returned to Meizhou Hakka in the middle of last season, has returned to Meizhou Wuhua to lead the team to train, although it has not yet been officially announced, but it is only a matter of time before Milan continues to be the head coach of the Meizhou Hakka team.

In terms of foreign players, Rodrigo, who was in the team last season, has returned to the team, and another foreign central defender, Morris, is also about to return, and several other foreign players will not be rehired. At present, Meizhou Hakka has been inspecting foreign aid in other locations, and the signing and official announcement can be completed after the announcement of the replacement is officially issued.

The club's management will also undergo a certain number of personnel changes, and a former club management is expected to take on the position of general manager.

Make every effort to strive for the support of all walks of life in the province

Among the multiple reasons for the relegation of Meizhou Hakka from the Chinese Super League in the 2024 season, in addition to the aging of the squad, the more important thing is the lack of investment.

Since the club has always been a single owner investment, when the investor's main business encounters financial difficulties, the operation of the club will inevitably be greatly affected. Judging from the current situation, the operation of Meizhou Hakka Club in the new season is still not optimistic: from the internal situation, the main business prosperity of the club's investors has not improved significantly, and the local professional football market-oriented operation space is limited, and the club's self-hematopoietic ability needs to be improved; From the perspective of the external environment, the economic scale of Meizhou's municipal state-owned enterprises is not large, which has affected the pace of diversified reform of professional football in Meizhou to a certain extent.

Although facing many difficulties, in recent years, the relevant departments of Meizhou City have been actively promoting the shareholding reform of professional football clubs, and at the same time actively docking with the Provincial Sports Bureau, the Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and other departments and units to strive for resource support, such as holding the Meizhou Sports Industry Resources Key Project Promotion Conference and Meizhou Hakka Football Club Resource Matchmaking Meeting, which contributed to the advertising cooperation between the Provincial Energy Group, the Provincial Guangxin Holding Group and Meizhou Hakka, with an amount of 17 million yuan.

In the future, Meizhou will continue to support the development of professional football and increase the guidance and support for the market-oriented operation of professional football clubs. The club also put forward the idea of helping the high-quality development of Meizhou Hakka team from the level of Guangdong Province, hoping to gradually expand the circle of friends and strive for strong support from all walks of life in the province under the premise of stable results.