| Football is the number sport in the world.A high-level professional football league can not only promote the overall progress of national football but also promote the healthy operation of the country’s economy and society.Chinese football took the road of professionalization in 1994,which marked the establishment of the league A.However,whether it is the League A or the Chinese Super League restructured from the League A in 2004,hovering at a low level for a long time,they are not fully on the right track,and even often bring public doubts about the league’s unprofessionalism.Thus,several national football documents such as the "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football" and the "Medium and Long-term Development Plan for Chinese Football(2016-2050)" had put forward a series of reform requirements aimed at promoting the in-depth professionalization of our country’s football league.However,the current understanding of the professionalization of the league in our country’s academic circles is mostly at the level of abstract speculation,and there is still a lack of systematic empirical research on the running of professional football leagues.All sectors of society have not formed a clear consensus on how to realize these reform requirements.There must be common laws behind the top football leagues with remarkable development results abroad.The top professional football league in foreign countries with remarkable development results contains the profound mechanism of the development of professional football."A stone from other mountains can attack jade.General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "it is necessary to accelerate the pace of sports reform and innovation,update the concept of sports,learn from the beneficial experience of foreign countries,and inject new vitality and impetus into the development of sports in our country." Therefore,to clarify the professional operation mode and internal laws of top foreign football leagues scientifically,and to extract a rational understanding of the development of professional football,has a good theoretical and practical reference value for the in-depth professional reform of our country’s football leagues.Through interpreting the connotation of league professionalization and the systematic combing of current research literature.The three levels of professional football league market-oriented operation,professional operation and socialization operation had analyzed empirically in this research.For these,this study was based on the Operational Efficiency theory,DC-CORPS theory and Evolutionary Game theory,and comprehensively used the literature data method,expert interview method,questionnaire survey method,and mathematical statistics methods.The conclusions are:1)Marketisation is the first important feature of the professional operation of the league.(1)Corporatization.Professional football clubs are the subjects of market competition,and the clubs in the world’s top football leagues are profit-making organizations with corporate governance structures aiming at "self-management,selffinancing and self-development",and some of them have developed into listed companies.(2)Profitability.The purpose of an enterprise is to make a profit before it can generate its revenue,and such benefits are reflected in the economic rationality and efficiency of inputs and outputs.Using the DEA-BCC model to analyse the operational efficiency of foreign top professional football leagues,they can be divided into two major categories according to the combined level of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency: one is the optimal level of operational efficiency,where the league’s input resources are used rationally to obtain efficient benefits in terms of its production frontier,containing three subtypes: "high input and high output type " with high input but good competitive results,high commercial value and social visibility,typified by the English Premier League;"medium input and high output" with much input but also good competitive,economic and social returns,typified by the Bundesliga;"low input and high output " with not much investment,and the competitive,economic,and social benefits are also relatively good,but there is still a gap in the volume of benefits compared horizontally with the first two subtypes,with the J1 League as typical.Second,sub-optimal level,which can be classified into three sub-categories: pure technical efficiency not reaching the optimal level,typified by the Russian Premier League,the Turkish Premier League and the Portuguese Premier League;scale efficiency not reaching the optimal level,typified by the Belgian League and the Dutch League;pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency both not reaching the optimal level,typified by the La Liga,Serie A and Ligue 1.2)Specialization is the second important feature of the professional operation of the league.(1)Specialization.A specialized league management body,the Professional Football League,is set up to professionally manage the clubs so that the league can operate effectively.(2)Standardization.The components of professional league management include the core of the league’s decision-making,the league’s service targets,the league’s business operations,the league’s financial resources,the league’s human resources and the league’s products.These components aim to regulate the cooperation and competition between clubs,eliminate uncertainties in the operation of the league,achieve the symbiotic development of club groups and maximize the overall benefits of the professional league.Specific experiences include: clubs collectively decide on significant league matters within the league authority;the league is sensitive to the aspirations of clubs and provides strong organizational conditions;the league constantly adjusts its organizational structure and rules control system over clubs in line with market requirements and commercial needs;the league actively undertakes commercial development work while strengthening internal financial control;the league is actively engaged in commercial development work while strengthening internal financial control;"let the professionals do their job";taking various initiatives to improve the quality of the game continuously.3)Socialization is the third important feature of the professional operation of the league.(1)Ecologisation.The National Football Association(NFA)and the Professional Football League(PFL)are relatively independent and separate,with the NFA managing amateur football and the PFL managing professional football,with the two building,governing,sharing and winning together to form a harmonious social ecology.(2)Selforganization.In the history of professional football,football clubs,associations,and leagues have evolved in a self-organizing process,with the National Football Association and the professional football leagues representing the collective interests of the clubs achieving an overall game equilibrium.Three conditions must be met in order to reach a cooperative game: a balance of interests,a good division of labor in the national football movement and a relatively balanced development of football’s ’public good’ and ’private profit’;mutual benefit and prosperity,a social mechanism for sharing costs and benefits,and the promotion of each other’s The study also aim to establish a social mechanism of cost-sharing and benefit-sharing to promote the sustainable development of each other;and to build and govern together,following the principle of two-way checks and balances to form a benign self-organization model to ensure practical long-term cooperation between each other.4)The professional running model of the foreign football league consists of three important characteristics of marketization,specialization,and socialization.It is organically integrated and complementary.Therefore,it generates the ecological model of the professional football with micro level,middle level,and macro level.On the micro level,the club market-oriented business mechanism with the goal of enhancing self-survival and development capabilities,the club’s stable operation to enhance the sustainable development capabilities of the league is an important support for promoting the socialization and professionalization of the league.On the middle level,the league autonomy system that reflects the position of the club and regulates the cooperation and competition between clubs."Specialization organization do specialization affairs" to improve league management effectiveness is an important guarantee for the marketization of the club.On the macro level,the football management system of the "small government,the big society",the cooperation game of the National Football Association and the Football League to ensure that the co-construction and sharing of the league is an important prerequisite for the specialization of the League management.5)The success of the professional reform of Japan’s football is the successful promotion and practical test of the world’s football professional operation model.Basic experience is reflected in two aspects:(1)Under the influence of the cultural tradition of learning from the strong,at the beginning of professionalism,it followed the internal laws of the three operation levels of the professional football League to make a comprehensive and fundamental reform of domestic football,which laid a solid foundation for the healthy development of the league.(2)Japan followed up and improved and improved various supporting policies and measures in a timely manner in accordance with the new situation of professional football.The degree of marketization,specialization and socialization of the league operation had been continuously improved,and the influence and competitiveness of the league had been continuously improved,and the overall level of national football had been continuously improved.6)At present,the league operation of Chinese profession football is not high in marketization,specialization and socialization which affects the healthy and stable development of the league.The club’s input-output are imbalance,weak self-survival and development ability and unable to achieve healthy growth;no professional organization to organize and manage the league,irregular league operation hurts the initiative and enthusiasm of relevant participating groups;unified governance of the league There is no substantive breakthrough in the pattern,and multiple stakeholders cannot achieve long-term harmonious coexistence.Based on the advanced experience of foreign countries,the enlightenment of Chinese football professionalism reform has been put forward: Forming the consensus on reform by correctly understanding connotation of professionalism;promoting the materialization of the Chinese Football Association in accordance with laws and regulations;Gradually facilitating operational stability of professional football league by a series of positive measures,including the formulation of the club access system with Chinese characteristics to regulate the development of the club,the steady promotion of the reform of the "Chinese name" of the club and the improvement of the policy of helping the club.The innovation of this study is in the theoretical and methodological aspects.In terms of theoretical innovation,it is the first time that the essential characteristics of the world’s professional football leagues are analyzed.A theoretical model of the "marketisation,professionalization and socialization" of professional football leagues is constructed,providing a theoretical basis for the reform of professional football in China and enhancing the reform’s systemic and scientific nature.In terms of methodological innovation,it provides the first in-depth empirical analysis of the connotation of professionalization of the league based on three theories: Operational Efficiency,DC-CORPS and Evolutionary Game,which innovates the research methods and tools of professional football and provides a new approach and vision for the development of professional football(sports). |
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