The N.F.L., widely considered the most successful sports league in North America, will reduce its staff by about 150 employees after theSuper Bowl in response to the slumping economy, Commissioner Roger Goodell told staff members in a memo Tuesday.

The N.F.L. has a total of 1,100 employees at its New York headquarters, at NFL Films in New Jersey and at the Los Angeles offices of the NFL Network and NFL.com. Although voluntary buyouts are being offered now, the league will not determine the breakdown of cuts until after the championship game on Feb. 1.

Some franchises have started to trim their staffs, as well. The Denver Broncos made cuts earlier this year, and the New England Patriots recently laid off about 5 percent of the staff from Gillette Stadium — about two dozen people — in anticipation of reduced trade-show and special-event business there next year.

The Patriots also closed their one-person China office, which opened when the team was scheduled to play a game there. With the N.F.L. focusing its overseas plans on regular-season games in Europe, the China game has been canceled.

This is actually the second cancellation of the NFL China game this year. The 2008 game, which scheduled for August 9 between New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, was called off by NFL this April, with the reason that they wanted to concentrate their “global resources” on next October’s regular season game in London. 

NFL China has been concentrating on developing grassroots fans in local colleges by staging various events and also marketing themselves on TV and the Internet. Chinese fans can now watch games on CCTV and Shanghai TV, and a live game is also available once a week on Sina.com, a major Chinese web portal. 

We’re suprised by the Patriots’ pullback from Beijing. But it all makes sense when looking at a bigger picture, where Honda’s withdrawal from F1, MLB’s recent job cuts and Arena Football League’s possible suspension in 2009 are all considered. 

Related Reads:

• New York Times: Feeling Pinch, N.F.L. Will Cut About 150 Jobs
• LA Times: Arena Football League reconsiders suspending 2009 season

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Beijing Youth Daily (北京青年报) yesterday published an impressive article about the future of China’s professional football league. The General Administration of Sport of China (GASC) and the Chinese Football Association (CFA) are currently considering taking back the ownership of football clubs from companies to local sports bureaus, a move clearly trying to put Chinese football under its controversial juguo or whole-nation sports regime. Below are some excerpts:

The establishment of professional football league made companies the owners of respective clubs. It bore some fruits to Chinese football but some defects as well. The professional league made all bosses of the teams put all of their energy into the first teams only, while neglecting the development of young talents of Chinese footabll. Moreover, the GASC and the CFA are left with little control over the clubs during the struggle of interests between them and club owners, a good example would be Wuhan Guanggu’s withdrawal from the Chinese Super League early this summer.

The GASC has held a couple of meetings after the Beijing Games discussing the problems of Chinese footabll. They come to the conclusion that the disastrous situation of Chinese football is brought on by poor management of football clubs. We haven’t seen the advantages of juguo sports regime from this department to date.

The GASC is preparing to take back to ownership of football clubs to local football associations and sports bureaus, making them the beneficiaries during club transactions and the main shareholders of clubs. Meanwhile, Companies can only become ad sponsors and cannot go into the management of the clubs.

Should the doomed Chinese football be juguoed as athletics, the GASC ideally would infuse a huge amount of capital into local sports bureaus to keep those youth teams, if they exist, up and running. But seriously, is Chinese football to cross the river by feeling the stones or go into the caves?  The Chinese men’s national football team has so far disqualified from whatever tournaments they attended and this probably made the smart guys at the GASC felt they got nothing to lose.

The Chinese football league was established in 1994.  The Chinese Super League, the top tier pro league, has given us enough shenanigans this year from club withdrawals to on-field fightings, and is banned by China Central Television, China’s main TV station, from broadcasting.

Source:

• Beijing Youth Daily: The GASC to take back football club ownerships (Chinese)
• BBC: China TV bans top football league

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Chinese Women’s Hockey Team continued their winning streak by beating Japanese Team 2-0 in Shanghai,  securing themselves a shot of playing in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics after three straight wins over Norway, Czech Republic and Japan. Ranked 8th in the world, the team consists of 19 players all coming from Harbin, the capital of China’s northeastern Heilongjiang Province which is also known as “ice city” for its long and cold winter.

Low Income

“We’re the only women’s pro team in the country,” said Wang Linuo, the skipper. “There’s only a very few amateur women’s teams, let alone pro. It’s very hard for them to play matches, as there’s almost no opponents. There’re probably less than 100 female hockey players in China now, most of them living in the northern cities like Harbin. I don’t know who’s going to catch up when we retire,” Wang continued. “It’s good that you see some people come to watch our games in Shanghai. But normally there’re less than 10 fans per game. In China, it’s like no body knows hockey and no body wants to know.”

“We’re ranked eighth in the world and I believe we have a shot at a possible medal in Vancouver,” said the Canadian head coach Paul Strople to the Chronicle-Herald. Paul has been with the team since the beginning of this year, the second time being employed as the head coach of this squad. Chinese Ice Hockey Association (CIHA), an organization under the General Administration of Sport of China, has been recruiting foreign experts like Paul as early as in 2003, an attempt to gather the tour de force needed to qualify for the Torino 2006 Winter Games. But Paul’s squad lost in the group qualifiers at the time.

In the wake of the defeat, the CIHA tried to help by other means. “A lot of our players are now playing outside the country. A couple played in Norway last year and six played in Canada. They gain more confidence by playing at different levels. Before our team had only played most of its games in China. But by playing in Canada, for instance, and being on their own for six months, they also gain life experiences as well,” noted Paul to the Halifax paper. “Ice hockey pays you well in Canada and the US. I wish China can have professional league like their one day,” said Wang.

Playing in a pro league does mean a lot to these girls. Only six of Wang’s teammates get their paychecks every month. Others can only receive an allowance of RMB 900 (roughly $ 130 USD) per person in a best month, while most of the time playing for nothing. “Isn’t it unimaginable we’re supported by our families? People ask why we still play. We play only because we love this sport,” a player said in an interview with Xinwenhubao (新闻午报), a Shanghai-based newspaper. But their bad days would not be over soon unless the CIHA could do something. And we can’t expect another 19 girls come and play for that 900 yuan monthly allowance.

New Hopes

“Ice hockey was once very popular in China in the 1980s, especially in the northeastern part of the country” Wang recalled. The then Chinese ice hockey league, which had 17 teams competing for the title, was ranked the best sports league in the country at the time. Thanks to its high competitiveness, Chinese Men’s Ice Hockey Team became a dominant power in Asia. In the Ice Hockey World Championship group match in 1981, tons of fans flocked to the stadium in match days, making Chinese cops, for the first time, control traffic for sports events after China’s Open Door Policy.

Today, with the rise of Chinese middle class, more and more cities are engaging in ice hockey, especially southern China. Guangzhou opened eight ice rinks in recent two years and has 20 amateur teams. Shenzhen also has five rinks now. Shanghai, the country’s economic center, opened three new rinks in a year, where expats and Chinese amateur teams could be found playing. Aside from hosting the Olympic qualifiers for China’s Women’s Team, the city’s Songjiang Stadium (松江冰球馆) is now home to China Sharks (中国鲨鱼队), a pro ice hockey team playing in Asia League Ice Hockey, who’s sponsored by the San Jose Sharks in NHL. Beijing outruns other cities in the number of ice rinks and has now about 4,000 amateur players under the age of 12. The Beijing Cubs, a team of enthusiastic Chinese hockey boys, won the title of Boys Atom House A of Bell Capital Cup in Canada in 2007. The capital’s Wukesong Indoor Stadium, built mainly for the Beijing Olympics, will possiblely host the first NHL pre-season game in China.

But all this may not be of any quick help to all the women players. The ladies now have gotten into the same trouble as Chinese women football players did, who hardly survived all these years…or maybe much worse than that, as China does not have a hockey league and the CIHA is supposedly poorer than the Chinese Football Association.

Sources:

• The Chronicle Herald: Halifax’s Strople coaches Chinese team to Olympics
• Chinese Ice Hockey Association: What can we do to help women’s ice hockey players? (Chinese)

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Zou Shiming, China’s first-ever Olympic boxing champion

Today we noticed an interesting piece from Reuters via Universal Sports about Zou Shiming, China’s first-ever Olympic boxing champion. From the article it seems the 27-year-old boxer is pretty determined to turn pro next year. “I want a professional golden belt for my country. I think I am capable,” said the boxer, “The professional contests are easier and more attractive to watch.”

After winning the light-fly weight champion in the Beijing Games, Zou has been consistently linked by Chinese media with Don King, the world renowned boxing promoter who is to stage a WBC heavyweight title match in Chengdu, Sichuan Province on November 7. Rumor has it that Don will likely sign Zou for $1 million USD. In an interview with Chutian Metropolis Daily (楚天都市报) yesterday, a spokesperson of Don King Productions Inc. told the press that they’re paying close attention to Zou Shiming and Zhang Xiaoping, the light heavy weight champion in Beijing Olympics. “We’ll come to China more often to watch their matches, and will consider signing them if possible,” said the King spokesperson.

Boxing is not like basketball or hurdling. If a boxer goes pro, he or she will be able to participate in matches organized by World Boxing Association, World Boxing Organization, World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation, but meanwhile can’t go back to play in either the Olympic Games or matches organized by the Amateur Boxing Association(AIBA). So Zou Shiming can’t be like Yao Ming or Liu Xiang, winning top gold and achieving Olympic dreams for the Chinese at the same time. He got to make a call here whether or not to end his Olympic trajectory. Or can he make a call for his own career?

Born in 1981, Zou began receiving boxing training in Zunyi Sports School (遵义体校) in Guizhou Province when he was 15. He was chosen to train in China’s National Boxing Team three years later. That means Zou has been supported by the country’s central planning whole-nation or juguo (举国) sports regime for 13 years until now, and getting stipends for about 11 years, bonuses not included. Going pro next year can definitely raise Zou’s income a lot, but can also make him a sinner at home. Ask Wang Zhizhi, and he can tell you how hard it takes to go against the officials. The then Los Angeles Clippers center was labeled almost as a traitor in China.

Chang Jianping, AIBA vice-president and president of the Chinese Boxing Association (中国拳击协会), said in an interview yesterday that AIBA is to have their own pro league – the World League of Boxing(WLB). Though also tagged ‘pro’, we presume incomes the athletes can receive will to some extent fall short of their expectations. The news may almost ruin Don’s shot to get Zou for now, as the 27-year-old is expected to win another gold for China in the 2012 London Olympics. “I think the WLB will be a very good choice for top boxers like Zou,” noted Chang, “They can participate in pro league and would not miss out the Olympics in the meantime. Zou will become more valuable in the future if he continues this trend.” Aside from Zou’s form, the trend Mr. Chang meant here is probably playing for the country. Unless there’s some other players can replace Zou, obviously the Chinese Boxing Association will not let him go very easily. But either way, Zou’ll get to play in pro games soon.

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Tan Jie, the director of Fenglu Club, cried at the press conference.

Guangdong Fenglu Aluminum Basketball Club (Fenglu, 广东凤铝铝业男子篮球俱乐部), founded in November 2006 by Guangdong Fenglu Aluminium Co.,Ltd, yesterday on November 2 made a statement about the club’s decision to quit Chinese Basketball Association(CBA, 中国篮球协会), governing body of Chinese basketball which is also the name of China’s premier professional basketball league. Below are some excerpts from the club’s statement.

- Stop Protecting Our Rights

In June 2008, Fenglu won the title of NBL, the secondary league to CBA, and thus qualified for getting promoted to the top league. The club had met all the 40 conditions of becoming a CBA team either in hardware or software in the evaluation by CBA staff in August. But on September 4, the Basketball Association and its league committee unofficially let CBA teams cast votes on whether nor not Fenglu should enter the league based on the principle of ‘geological balance of the clubs’. (CSR: Noted that CBA will have four teams based in Guangdong Province if Fenglu enters, as Olypian Professional Basketball Club (北京奥神职业篮球俱乐部) will return to CBA this year from the American Basketball Association.) The poll which is strongly against Qualification Paper issued by CBA should be questioned and we had to take it as a black box operation. Fenglu submitted the case to the General Administration of Sport of China later by the court based on China’s Sports Law and GASC’s regulations, hoping that they can do the supervising duty. The GASC replied at 6 pm on October 21 to the club: Your request is not in our accepting list, please submit it to other organizations concerned.Fenglu brought a suit against CBA on October 22 but it was rejected by the court. Until now, all CBA, GASC and People’s Court haven’t provide any possible help on this matter. Therefore, Fenglu decided to stop protecting its rights after seeing no hopes of getting protection through proper means.

- The Credibility of CBA Should Be Questioned

According to the Qualification Paper issued by CBA, Fenglu had met the requirements both in ranking and club conditions that can guarantee it a place in CBA. But the club was ‘balanced out’ due to a manipulated poll. Fenglu has been expecting CBA can deal with this matter properly based on respecting the regulations and being down-to-earth. Our club would accept the decision ifCBA could explain it in a reasonably and properly manner.

Fenglu questions CBA’s decision to disqualify the club from entering the top league. CBA staff first denied there’s a need of ‘geological balance of the clubs’ but later get it confirmed. It’s hard to understand what principles CBA has been following in doing their supervising duty. Looking back at the whole dispution process, the attitude and actions of CBA as a supervising body is disappointing, and we’re in doubt of its credibility.

Fenglu questions the so-called ‘democratic poll’, as the requirements of entering CBA are clearly stated in Qualification Paper and Qualification Details issued by CBA and there’s no so-called ‘democratic poll’ on them.

Fenglu questions the poll result. CBA tried to make up its already published first poll by orgnizing a second one on October 7 that included Fenglu Club as a voter. Had Fenglu been voted out after the first poll or the second? If it’s the first, why is it nessasary to include Fenglu in the second poll? If it’s the second, what’s the purpose of including Fenglu in it after CBA announced the club was disqualified already? This is ridicioulous.

]]> http://www.chinasportsreview.com/2008/11/03/the-battle-between-fenglu-club-and-the-chinese-basketball-association/feed/ 3 http://www.chinasportsreview.com/2008/10/31/china-to-restart-its-badminton-league-in-2009/ http://www.chinasportsreview.com/2008/10/31/china-to-restart-its-badminton-league-in-2009/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:42:41 +0000 David http://www.chinasportsreview.com/?p=56 Early this August, China’s badminton team won three golds, two silvers and three bronzes in the Beijing Olympics, ranking the 4th medal-winning sport for the country (the top three are gymnastics, weightlifting and diving). Chinese Badminton Association, sub-danwei of the General Administration of Sport of China (GASC), is recently considering bringing back its long gone badminton league, a move aiming at raising incomes of badminton players and coaches in local teams, and keeping Chinese players the cream of the crop.

Chinese Badminton Association once formed a league back in 1999, which went down in 2003 due to a failure of generating profits. Aside from international matches organized by Badminton World Federation, local players in China nationwide now can only play in two tournaments organized annually by the association: National Champions Tournament (全国冠军赛) and National Tournament (全国锦标赛), which is, no doubt, far from good for the development of young talents.

Li Yongbo, the head coach of Chinese National Badminton Team, told press recently that the association had decided to kick off a new badminton league next year even before the Olympics. “We’ll try to replace the tournaments by a league in 2009, and to make it bigger should we achieve our goal in 2010.”

Can Li and his fellow colleagues reach their goal? It’s reported that the association is looking for a sponsorship of about RMB 5-6 million to start. But if they are to follow the route of Chinese Table Tennis League, where clubs’ revenues are mainly generated by touring the country and getting bonuses from generous local private business owners, we’ll be curious to see how long they can make it under the current economic conditions.

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