On July 3, the Dalian  Wanda Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and promised to provide at least 500 million yuan within three years to support the development of Chinese soccer.

In the short run, Wanda’s sponsorship could help the CFA hire world famous soccer coaches for the Chinese team so as to increase the chance of the team succeeding in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. 

And in the long run, Wanda will sponsor talented young players to train in Europe and is attempting to strengthen the Youth League for young players between 10 and 17. The key problem that blocks the development of Chinese soccer is the lack of talent. If more excellent young players are trained, Chinese soccer will benefit greatly.

Wanda is facing both opportunities and challenges. After a long fight against fixed matches and bent referees, the environment of Chinese soccer has been improved a lot. As Chinese soccer has been frustrated by repeated failures, Wanda’s sponsorship at this crucial moment has a chance to drag Chinese soccer out of the mire. 

However, the problem for Wanda is that the CFA hasn’t fundamentally changed its management system, and there has been considerable collusion between the Super League (China) Limited Company and the CFA.  

Fortunately, the Wanda group has taken some precautions. Wanda hands out money and doesn’t get involved in the decision-making of the CFA, but it firmly demands that the association should give detailed reporters on how it spends Wanda’s money. 

This watchdog role is an important one. And Wanda has also set conditions for continuing the sponsorship after three years. 

If the CFA fails to produce a certain number of young players, and to raise attendance at the Super League, Wanda will cut off sponsorship and the CFA’s credibility will be badly harmed. 

Chinese soccer has been involved with the government too deeply. But reality has shown this is unworkable. Now Wanda has stepped in with the ambition of restructuring Chinese soccer. 

The way ahead will not be smooth. But we hope Wanda’s trial could help to break the administrative barriers in the development of Chinese soccer and bring it back to a market-orientated approach.

Beijing Youth Daily