Editor’s note:He is the founder of Football. He has been a China football reporter for more than 40 years. He witnessed and recorded the eventful years of China football in the past half century. He is Yan Junjun! Although he is over eighty years old, he still pays close attention to the development of football in China. After a new round of anti-corruption and anti-counterfeiting in China, Yan Lao wrote this article "Creating a New Era of Football in China" in his hometown of Wanning, Hainan, which is his profound thinking on football in China.
Looking at the changes in the world football situation, we can only know the backwardness of Chinese football. It is disappointing that western professional football failed to shine brilliantly in the socialist countries with China characteristics.
China is carrying out the socialist construction with China characteristics. China football can’t keep pace with the times and do nothing, which is quite criticized by Chinese people, and it can’t live up to the ardent expectations of China fans.
In 2022, the success of Qatar Football World Cup was a sensation all over the world. This World Cup is full of China elements and China flavor. Such as venue construction, stadium advertisements and reception hotels, are basically built and put into operation by enterprises in China. The crowd laughed and said, "All China people went there, except the football team." The world’s elite football players who fight on the field just don’t see the players wearing the word "China". This kind of loss is beyond words. As the first generation of sports journalists trained in New China, the "trumpeter" who promoted the development of football in China, and the witness of China’s sports take-off, I felt lost and sad when I saw this situation, which can be said to have reached the level of "grief".
Needless to say, China fans are disappointed by the absence of the national team from the World Cup, and their grief has reached an extreme level. Not only that, the rapid development of football has been blocked, and even the fans of small countries in Southeast Asia have paid great attention to it. However, they are not sad, but "mocking" to express their negative encouragement and refueling to China football. They don’t understand China’s disappointing football, because they don’t understand the reason why China’s football is so depressed. All the ridicule and sarcasm are out of sympathy and goodwill expectation. After all, China is a big country in Asia, and it is more qualified to win glory for Asian football. The development of football in China is not satisfactory. I am sorry for the expectations of the people in the new era and the people who are pursuing a better life. At this moment, we should use a slogan in the early days of building socialism to encourage them: "Go all out and strive for the top"! Be angry and try to fight.
To create a new era of football in China is to strive to become an Asian football power and strive to rank among the world football powers.
Nowadays, in order to optimize the capitalist pure market-oriented professional football for our use, we must first understand the history of world football development, study the law of professional football development, and improve the cognitive level of professional football attributes, but this requires great efforts.
The World Cup is the most important sports competition in the world, with the strongest appreciation, the largest audience and the highest commercial value. It is generally believed that a country can hardly be called a sports power even if other sports are advanced, such as football.
FIFA has more than 200 members, more than the United Nations. It is an unshirkable responsibility to develop football.
In May 1928, FIFA decided to host its own World Cup at the Amsterdam Congress. With the unremitting efforts of then FIFA President Rimet and Secretary General Delaune, the first World Cup was held in Uruguay two years later in 1930.
FIFA once shut China out of the world football family, and China missed the World Cup. It simply regarded the World Cup as "bourgeois madness", did not report or broadcast it, and defined the World Cup as "capital".
According to statistics, a total of 5 billion people participated in, watched and paid attention to FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022; About 3.4 million people watched the ball on the spot; There are 93.6 million posts related to the World Cup on social media.
From 1930 to 2022, FIFA held 22 World Cups, and the countries that won the championship were all located in Europe and America. These countries are all capitalist countries, and socialist countries have never won the World Cup. Therefore, some scholars in China have judged that professional football can only be realized in a mature capitalist environment if it wants to develop healthily. Professional football is a typical product of capitalism. Today, we introduce the professional football named Zi to the socialist land with China characteristics, which seems to be acclimatized, and it seems to be "getting twice the result with half the effort".
But forty years ago, there was a familiar saying that "the market economy is not a patent of capitalism". Socialist China did business with other countries through the "the belt and road initiative", which was mutually beneficial and win-win, and refuted the "patent" theory.
Today, China’s economic entity ranks second in the world. Eighty years ago, the slogan of "surpassing Britain to catch up with the United States" in rural Hainan was realized ahead of schedule in the new era of socialism with China characteristics.
Can China scholars in the new era ask such questions? The World Cup is not the patent of capitalism. The key is to be good at injecting China characteristics and do a good job in football articles with "China characteristics".
In fact, China is a land of geomantic omen. It has the advantages of developing people’s sports, actively participating in the international arena of competitive sports, and being among the world’s sports powers. There is no need to make a fuss about the corruption in China’s football field, but we must deal with it resolutely according to the current laws and policies, take it seriously and never tolerate it. In a word, it is "zero tolerance"! In addition, we must find the reason from the root.
China’s failure in football is not entirely due to the corruption of the Football Association, while China’s football training mechanism, competition mechanism and talent selection mechanism are insufficient. At the same time, the professionalism and professional ethics of the football players in China are not up to standard. Those football powers are not directly related to the fact that the country is relatively rich and the Football Association is relatively clean and honest. The key is to cultivate outstanding football talents, the so-called "stars". Take the final in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 as an example. It was a close match between Argentina and France. Argentina led 2-0 in the first half, France tied 2-2 in the second half, and scored 3-3 in extra time, and Argentina won the final with 4-2. Throughout the audience, you can’t see the shadow of the country’s wealth, and you can’t see the help of the resourcefulness and decisiveness of the football associations of the two countries. It’s all the technical cooperation of 22 stars, specifically the footwork of Messi and Mbappé. In the end, it is the goalkeeper’s fighting skills, psychological quality and even luck. What I see is the selfless spirit of fighting for national honor with body language. This makes us understand that it is people, the players on the field and the coaches off the field who decide the victory or defeat of football.
Unfortunately, in recent 30 years, China has not produced many valuable stars, and there is no "Rong Zhixing" after Rong Zhixing, which is really a difficult problem in China football. And the answer depends on the team of China Football Association to find out the problem and put forward the solution. It is necessary to lead the national football workers, crack it and hand over the answers that satisfy the people all over the country. Time waits for no one, 10,000 years is too long, seize the day, and within ten years, can you hand over the answer?
The following three reasons, talk about the shortcomings of the development of football in China, hoping to attract people’s discussion.
The first is the mechanism. Some sports in China, such as basketball (women’s), volleyball (women’s), table tennis, badminton, swimming, gymnastics and weightlifting, are in the forefront of the world, while other sports, such as track and field, are approaching the world level. The backwardness of football really does not conform to the law of the development of sports in China. It can be said that the development of football in China has not yet found a road suitable for the characteristics of China. To create a new road for the development of football in China, we must set up a Football Association team with China characteristics, which is suitable for China’s national conditions. Emphasis on characteristics is because China is a socialist country, and we must emphasize the strong leadership of the party and the state.
At that time, when Comrade Wu Shaozu was the director of the State Sports Commission, Comrade Li Tieying, a member of the Political Bureau, personally cared, and a new atmosphere appeared in football. Today’s Football Association leaders, in addition to lacking authority, even lack courage and professional knowledge. In a word, they are not worthy of both ability and political integrity. China, Japan and South Korea began to reform football almost at the same time, but so far, we are at least twenty or thirty years behind Japan and South Korea. Some people say that professional football must be realized in a mature capitalist environment if it wants to take off. This view has a great market among some people. In today’s socialist China, with the western market economy concept and operation mode, we can do business with the developed countries in the world, and win each other for mutual benefit, and make China rich, and get better and better. Can’t China’s football become stronger without introducing the form of western professional football to China for operation? China people say no. They believe that as long as they are good at using the advantages of socialist countries, football, like other sports strengths, can climb the peak of world football. The football association with China characteristics must be combined with the reality of China’s football situation, otherwise, even if the FIFA president is hired as the president of the China Football Association, it will be difficult to move, acclimatized and accomplish nothing.
Secondly, the talent selection system should introduce competition mechanism. The decision-makers (coaches) of China Football Association must be selected from the powerful figures in China, a strong sports province, especially a strong football province. In terms of players and coaches, China football has always been divided into north and south. The northern faction is represented by Liaoning and Dalian teams, while the southern faction is represented by Guangdong and Shanghai teams. Every World War I between the North and South teams is bound to stir up the whole country. However, since Ceng Xuelin left his post, most of the coaches of the national team were from the North, and the southern players who were good at technical flexibility were gradually neglected. Rong Zhixing, Gu Guangming, Zhao Dayu, Wu Qunli and other outstanding players no longer emerged.
At that time, Nian Weisi, the president of the Football Association, was discerning and entrusted Su Yongshun with the responsibility of attacking the World Cup. He boldly used one-third of Guangdong players to play technical football, and almost rushed into the World Cup finals. Later, he failed, and the northern fans were dissatisfied. He criticized Su’s policy of "favoring Guangdong" by saying "China is a team from China". From then on, the strong and fierce tactics of long pass and high hanging led the team, lacking competition and single style, which made China football stand still. Even after Milu led China into a World Cup, it was well known that Japan and South Korea, as the hosts, vacated places in this World Cup, which facilitated China’s qualifying.
In recent ten years, the China Football Association has been unable to open up the situation, mainly because the decision-makers are not qualified for both ability and political integrity. To form a new team of the Football Association, it is necessary to reuse those who have both ability and political integrity and combine the old with the new. Of course, we know that to cure the serious football addiction in China, we also need "old Chinese medicine practitioners". For example, Nian Weisi, the birthday girl in football, is an old-timer who has both ability and political integrity, wisdom and courage, and can fully participate in the "consultation" of the Football Association and make suggestions. Nian Weisi has a wide range of knowledge. Forty years ago, he once said that what a good cadre is is a person who can find problems and propose solutions to them, and solve them by this method. His understanding of football is simple and incisive. He thinks that football match is to be good at finding out the weakness of the opponent, making the opponent make mistakes, grasping the seven inches and killing the opponent. At the age of 90, his speech at the birthday party was in one go, full of sound and emotion, and his style remained the same. This kind of football "old Chinese doctor" has theory and practice, and can be used well. Moreover, there are many such "old Chinese medicine practitioners". Bi Xidong, a former sports reporter of China Youth Daily, is a rare wizard. Thirty years ago, he was the strategist of football reform in China. There is also one in Guangdong, that is, Dong Liangtian, former director of Guangdong Sports Commission. In the 1990s, he was a candidate for the president of China Football Association, but talents were rare. Guangdong authorities were unwilling to give up what they gave up, and Dong Liangtian stayed in the place.
Dong Liangtian is a player and the absolute main force of the Guangdong team. After retirement, he is still committed to promoting football and promoting Guangdong football culture. He personally cooperated with large enterprises in Guangdong, set up the "Lixing Celebrity Football Club" and guided the training of young players in Guangdong, which achieved great results.
Thirdly, there is a very important job, which is to improve the professionalism and professional ethics of the first-line players and form a correct outlook on life and mission.
The China Football Association will launch a campaign to publicize and learn from Mr. Fok Ying-tung’s patriotism in the national football field. Mr. Fok Ying-tung’s efforts to develop sports in the motherland and improve the football level in China are irreplaceable by anyone. Mr. Fok Ying-tung is the first person in China to hold an important position in the International Olympic Committee and FIFA. It is necessary to make Mr. Fok Ying-tung’s patriotic spirit of fighting for national interests and national honor all his life carry forward in China football.
Personally, I suggest that China Football Association move to Xiong ‘an, a new city in Hebei Province, which is in line with China people’s lottery customs and culture. I hope that China football will be "vigorous" and safe, steady and far-reaching.
(Written in Wanning, Hainan on June 30, 2023, at the age of 80)
