"Boss, we've discussed repeatedly with the Football Association, but they just won't agree to us investing in four clubs simultaneously. They said we either invest in just one club, or disperse the other players among the teams of other clubs!" Huang Laoban's secretary reported to Huang He.
The resettlement of players from these five teams after their return to the country had become a problem that needed to be considered.
Therefore, some of the strongest players would directly go to A
After much thought, it seemed the only option was to return to China and continue participating in the Chinese Super League.
Huang Laoban had initially made this decision, so he directly contacted five professional Chinese Super League clubs, intending to buy all five clubs at once to accommodate the five youth training teams withdrawn from abroad.
The Chinese Super League clubs naturally welcomed this with open arms. After all, starting from 2022, due to a series of questionable moves by the Football Association, the Chinese Super League had been declining year after year.
Coupled with the public's increasing lack of interest in football, this led to a year-on-year decrease in viewership for the Chinese Super League, and even the number of people willing to attend matches in person dwindled.
Various title sponsors and advertising sponsors had withdrawn from the Chinese Super League and turned to sponsor the booming esports competitions.
To be fair, the current Jiangnan Cup was the truly hottest commercial event. Professional competitions for various games were emerging one after another, and the Jiangnan Cup, which ultimately benefited top professional teams worldwide, now had almost the scale of the Olympics.
In 2012, the Jiangnan Cup changed from an annual event to a biennial global event. Over two hundred different countries participated, with more than 82 different esports competitions, completely capturing the attention of almost all young people worldwide.
Console games, PC games, and terminal games competed fiercely. The champion of esports, developed by oo Games, was the League of Legends competition, which last year created an astonishing commercial miracle with 1.2 billion global viewers and a total sponsorship of 1.8 billion US dollars.
Last year's League of Legends world champion: the Vietnamese representative team, set an unreachable record.
This country, which had participated in the competition since the first year of League of Legends but had never won a championship, and even only made it to the playoffs once, miraculously defeated the Chinese representative team's eight-year, four-time consecutive championship streak, snatching the League of Legends championship from the Chinese team.
The combined value of the five players on this team was less than 400,000 Chinese yuan. However, after this match, each player's personal valuation directly exceeded 400 million Chinese yuan.
They were then fiercely contested by several domestic professional clubs and were reportedly to be dispersed among four different professional clubs, participating in next year's Chinese League of Legends Professional Esports League.
It was precisely because of competitions like esports attracting a large portion of young people's attention that a generational decline in Chinese football fans occurred.
According to statistics, in 2020, the average age of Chinese football fans was 37.
By 2033, the average age of Chinese football fans was 45, implying that it was the same group of people with no change.
At one point, some enthusiastic individuals specifically took cameras to Chinese Super League match venues, but they weren't there to film the teams' matches, but rather the fans in the stands.
The result was that a massive stadium that could hold 30,000 people had only a sparse scattering of less than 1,000 fans. Among these 1,000 faces, apart from a few dozen children brought by their fathers, the fans who appeared to be in the 15-30 age range numbered less than 20 in total, indicating how unpopular Chinese football had become domestically.
The Football Association also felt immense pressure in this regard.
Although the Football Association never cared whether the fans were happy or pleased, if all the sponsors ran away, the Football Association would truly be unable to cope.
But the problem was, the sponsors were indeed running away.
All sponsors were very realistic. If your matches were popular, I would naturally sponsor you. If your matches were not popular, why would I waste my money?
Therefore, as football matches gradually declined in China, sponsors also became fewer and fewer, and the annual naming rights fees for the Chinese Super League decreased year by year.
By 2028, the total naming rights fees for the entire Chinese Super League in a year were less than 1 billion, which wasn't even enough to pay bonuses to the Football Association officials.
If the Football Association was in such a state, the sponsorship obtained by individual clubs was even more pitiful. Many clubs expressed that they could not support the exorbitant costs of the Chinese Super League and player expenses.
Not only did player salaries continue to decrease, but the home grounds of each team also became dilapidated. Of course, even so, a large number of Chinese Super League clubs were insolvent, declared bankruptcy, and waited for new owners to take over.
But the problem was that in this era, only fools would still play football. Thus, in the 2029 Chinese Super League, a historical spectacle occurred.
Out of the 18 teams in the Chinese Super League, a full eight teams were clubs that had gone bankrupt and were directly managed by the Football Association. This was an unprecedented scene that had never occurred in any professional competition.
Originally, in 2030, there was a turning point: the AM team historically qualified for the World Cup. At that time, the entire Chinese Super League felt very excited.
Because after the AM team entered the World Cup, the traffic related to football surged overnight to an unbelievable level.
On Facebook, the daily discussion volume about football was originally around 113,200. However, with the AM team entering the World Cup, the daily discussion traffic soared directly to 4.462 billion, a 40,000-fold increase.
Even after the World Cup ended, the daily football discussion volume remained stable at around 40 million, which moved Chinese football to tears. Industry insiders all expressed that the severe cold was about to pass and spring was coming.
Concurrently, a large number of investors and capital entered, believing this was a good opportunity to buy at a low price.
As a result, reality slapped them in the face. When the 2031 Chinese Super League season began, the number of spectators buying tickets was nearly 40% less than in 2030, and the live broadcast viewership fell by about 60%. The popularity of the Chinese Super League plummeted again, leaving all those who had invested and sponsored in a state of confusion.
But the problem was that the daily discussion volume on Facebook was still over 40 million. Why was no one watching the Chinese Super League?
After a thorough investigation, they realized that although the popularity had increased, the Chinese Super League fans had left.
This was because the team that entered the World Cup was the AM team, not the national team.
The star players who gained fame in the World Cup were Liu Xu, Zhang Peng, Liu Pei Qiang, Li Yi Yi, Han Zi Ang, and these new generation young players from China.
However, none of these players played in the Chinese Super League; they all played in the top five leagues in the world. Who the hell would watch your Chinese Super League matches!
So, whether they were newly generated fans or old fans, they all went to follow the matches of the five youth training teams.
After all, with these five teams that made people hold their heads high, which fan would be willing to go back and endure the torture of the Chinese Super League!
This was more or less the current situation of the Chinese Super League and Chinese football as a whole.
I believe many intelligent readers, upon reaching this point, would exclaim, "That's not right! Since the fans' focus is now on those five youth training teams."
"Now that these five youth training teams have returned and are even willing to join the Chinese Super League, and Jiangnan Group is willing to spend money to buy five teams that are currently managed by the Football Association, how can this not be a sure-win, no-loss deal?"
"Not only can the Football Association make a lot of money from these five teams, but they can also bring back fans and viewership. How could anyone in the world refuse such a good thing?"
Believe it or not, the Football Association actually refused.
The reasons were complex. The publicly stated reason was the refusal to allow Jiangnan Group to acquire five teams at once.
According to relevant Chinese Super League policies, a capital entity could only invest in one team, and it was strictly forbidden for one capital to invest in more than two teams.
This rule itself was not problematic, as it could lead to match-fixing between teams, reducing the viewing experience, and potentially causing issues like doping.
But the problem was that this time, Jiangnan Group was the investor. Boss Huang had already invested tens of billions of dollars into these five teams. Would he still engage in doping for the sake of mere tens of millions of dollars?
However, the Football Association adamantly stuck to this rule, and Jiangnan Group had no recourse.
But this was the reason publicized, and there were many underlying reasons, with three most important ones.
The first point was that many other capitals had their eyes on the five teams held by Jiangnan Group and the 100 top players who had trained in the top five leagues in the world.
They wanted to divide these 100 top players and bring a batch to their own teams, thereby increasing their own teams' attention. Otherwise, with only a few "crooked melons and split dates" within their own teams, how could they attract fan attention?
What was even more terrifying was that if these 100 top players were all in Jiangnan Group's hands, who else would have the ability to compete for the Chinese Super League championship? They might as well compete for the runner-up position!
Therefore, they hoped to use this opportunity to divide Jiangnan Group's players. Of course, they didn't expect to poach the very top star players; Huang He would certainly not allow it.
They wanted to poach those less important players, such as the reserve goalkeeper who played in Ligue 1.
This reserve goalkeeper, despite being a substitute, was currently one of the most famous players in Ligue 1 because he could achieve a 100% save rate on set pieces.
Last year, when playing against Paris Saint-Germain, this goalkeeper saved three penalty kicks from the current king, Mbappé, shocking the world and making him famous overseas.
By the way, this reserve goalkeeper's name was Wang Fanfan.