Rigged with debts and lawsuits, has "Hengfeng" lost its salvage value?

It is not surprising that the players behave like this, because after the Guizhou team returned to Guiyang after the third phase of the league, the team has been basically in a situation where no one cares about it. The temporary training venue, food and accommodation are all It was settled by the local football association. Even the venue for the last training session was arranged by head coach Chen Mao through a personal relationship with a friend. The club's senior management could no longer be contacted. The players were worried that the team would quietly disband like Suning, so they went to the local petition department for help.

The club proposed to reissue part of the money first, let the players enter the competition area, and then settle the remaining part. It even proposed using houses and cars as mortgages, but because the players had heard the same thing several times before, The company's promises were made, and investors Wen Wei and Wen Xiaoting did not attend the meeting, so these proposals were rejected. Two and a half hours of negotiation still failed to produce a result acceptable to both parties. On the 7th, Ou Yiqiang said in an interview with the media that the two sides have "resolved" the problem and the team will depart for Meizhou, Guangdong around the 12th to participate in the fourth stage of the Chinese League One. However, the feedback from the players is that training has only resumed, and no agreement has been reached on how to resolve the arrears of wages.

At this point, the only professional football club in Guizhou Province, after six years of ups and downs (including two years in the Chinese Super League and four years in the Chinese League One), has reached a point of destiny. Is there any possibility of continuing to survive? Will Guizhou Province help the club tide over the difficulties, or will it end the team and start over?

As we all know, the investor of the Guizhou team is Wen Wei from Hengfeng Group. His daughter Wen Xiaoting was also a popular figure in the league during the team’s Chinese Super League. So why do the Wen family keep What about breaking appointments and being unwilling to negotiate with players to resolve issues such as unpaid wages? That's because the club's liabilities are far more than just salary arrears. The current salary arrears of the players on the team are only a small part of its overall liabilities. Various unprofessional behaviors in the process of running the club in the past few years have led to the Guizhou team There are also various bizarre liabilities:

At present, the salary arrears of club staff, athletes, and coaches reaches 50 million; the salary of Italian general manager Mauro is 3.4 million, plus the transfer fee of foreign aid Jelavic 20 million , liquidated damages of 10 million, late fees of 5 million, a total of 40 million; FIFA has judged that foreign aid Steve should be paid 14.5 million liquidated damages, coach Manzano's team liquidated damages of 37 million, a total of more than 50 million; there are also international The Football Association has not yet decided the lawsuit: foreign aid Jelavic sued for liquidated damages and interest of 15 million; in addition, there is about 100 million in tax arrears, and local hotels owe 4 million. When all is calculated, the arrears are at least 250 million.

Not only that, in 2019, FIFA and the International Court of Arbitration for Sports successively supported the lawsuit claims of former Hengfeng foreign aid Steve and coach Manzano’s team, ruling that Guizhou Hengfeng must pay liquidated damages totaling RMB About 50 million. After Hengfeng was unable to pay, the Chinese Football Association issued the "Decision on Punishment of Guizhou Hengfeng Football Club for Failure to Implement FIFA Rulings" Zuji Zi [2021] No. 008, requiring Guizhou to be banned from October 17, 2020. The football club (Hengfeng) registers new players, covering all its men's 11-a-side football teams (from the first team to all levels of youth echelons). The club must pay the penalty before the penalty decision can be lifted - this penalty decision means, because Unable to register professional athletes, Hengfeng U19 and U21 reserve teams cannot participate in the Youth Super League.

According to the "Notice on the Access Regulations of Professional Clubs of the Chinese Football Association", the club development structure standards state that Chinese League One clubs must have seven sports teams: first team, U21, U19, U17, U15, U14, and U13 team and represent the club in different official events at all levels. Because the club did not register athletes over 18 years old as professional players in accordance with the requirements of the Chinese Football Association, it was unable to complete the registration of U21 and U19 echelon athletes, and therefore was unable to participate in the 2021 National Youth Men's Football Super League. It will affect Guizhou Football Club (Hengfeng)'s qualifications for the Chinese Football Association Professional League in the 2022 season. The possible consequences include fines, warnings, deduction of league points, reduction of transfer quotas, restrictions on the number of team player registrations, cancellation of admission qualifications, etc.

Heavy debts and lawsuits have made it extremely difficult for Guizhou Province to save the team. Not only that, the relevant departments also realized that it was Wen's unprofessional behavior in pursuing short-term effects in the process of running the club that caused the team to fall into such a crisis. Guizhou Hengfeng’s investment in football coincided with Guizhou Renhe’s home stadium moving to Beijing. Hengfeng hoped that by investing in football, he could obtain a series of government benefits and support that Guizhou Renhe enjoyed in Guizhou at the time, including the sponsorship of Kweichow Moutai.

Because of such demands, everything from the introduction of foreign players and foreign teachers to the hiring of club managers is aimed at attracting attention and creating a sensation. After Li Bing, Manzano was hired for 8 million euros. , and then Petrescu, the management team also successively hired Ford Bao company staff, national football translators, and so-called Italian experts, which brought a highlight effect, but did not bring first-class management efficiency.

Whether it cost more than 20 million yuan to introduce Steve, the final ownership rights of the players do not belong to Hengfeng; or whether it paid 7 million yuan in salary and 10 million yuan to sign some domestic players who were already in decline. The sky-high-fee contracts and even the introduction of fake Italian youth training coaches have become insider jokes. These so-called "unprofessionalisms" cannot be excused by "lack of experience". Under this circumstance, continuing to support the "Hengfeng" club is also considered to be of no value.

After Guizhou Football Club (Hengfeng) is currently punished by FIFA and the Chinese Football Association and unable to introduce and register new players, it has gone from 170 registered players in 2020 to only 107 registered athletes in 2021. Level 7 sports teams that cannot meet the professional league admission requirements have a minimum of 18 players per team. Coupled with the outbreak of wage arrears, even if the players enter the competition zone to complete the Chinese League One in the 2021 season, there is a high possibility that they will not be able to participate in the Chinese League One in the 2022 season.

From the perspective of youth training and echelon, among the 107 registered athletes in 2021, only 26 are from Guizhou, accounting for 24%. Among them, there is 1 player in the first team and 2 players in the U21 echelon. The number of local players in the sports team is small, which shows that it has not provided substantial help to the cultivation and growth of high-quality youth football talents in Guizhou. Since its establishment in 2017, the U-series echelon has ranked low every year in the Chinese Football Association National Youth Super League.

In other words, whether from the perspective of professional football or from the perspective of leading youth training in Guizhou Province, there is no need for Guizhou Province to further support "Hengfeng Club".

Currently, there are opinions in Guizhou Province that using the market and resources left by Hengfeng, Guizhou can establish a Chinese championship club and start from scratch. Of course, if you want to be stable and long-term, you must meet the following conditions: First We must promote the diversification of equity in professional football clubs. Private enterprise investors invest in professional clubs to achieve corporate goals and are not directly responsible for the progress of football in a region. In this field, state-owned enterprises must play the role of ballast to ensure the stable development of clubs and ensure that professional football leads the overall situation. and the promotion role; the second is to promote the healthy development of the club and strive to improve the hematopoietic mechanism. The necessary condition for the sustainable development of professional football clubs is "long-term balance of payments."

In addition to actively exploring ways to sell event tickets, sell broadcast rights, derivatives development authorization, sponsor sponsorship, etc., special support policies also need to be implemented.

At this level, Guizhou Province does not lack precedents. Since 2016, the Provincial Sports Bureau and Guiyang Municipal Government have given certain support to Guizhou Football Club (Hengfeng). As of the end of August 2021, Guizhou Football Club (Hengfeng) has received a total of 65.23 million yuan in incentives and support funds, including 3 million yuan from the Provincial Sports Bureau and 62.23 million yuan from the Guiyang Municipal Government. The support part of the Guiyang Municipal Government is: 2 million yuan in rewards in 2016, 20 million yuan in 2017, 2 million yuan in 2018, 16.33 million yuan in 2019, and 3.9 million yuan in 2021. The Guiyang Municipal Government provided the Guiyang Olympic Sports Center as the club's home stadium and office space free of charge, and the Provincial Sports Bureau provided the Qingzhen Sports Training Base free of charge for the club to use for training from 2016 to 2017.

Relevant departments in Guizhou have conducted some research on the investment amount of professional football clubs. The annual average of Chinese Super League clubs is about 150 million yuan, the annual average of Chinese League One clubs is about 40 million, and the annual average of Chinese League Two clubs is about 10 million. The average annual income of Chinese championship clubs is about 4 million. With the guarantee of promotion to the professional league, Guizhou Province has basically met the conditions for establishing a new professional club.

According to the "Guizhou Provincial Football Medium and Long-term Development Plan and Implementation Plan (2016-2050)", the Guizhou Provincial Football Association is gradually building and improving the provincial football development plan by implementing the integration of youth training institutions and professional football clubs. , carrying out high-level youth football events, is expected to make better changes to the current situation of professional football in the province, enable Guizhou professional football to move forward on the right track, and drive better and faster development of the province's sports industry.