Let's talk about the snow leopard in Tianshan, Xinjiang. It has become a hot topic because Chen Xiaoyuan, president of the Football Association, used the team name as a template to promote it, which shows that China football is "literate" and the club should be able to come up with a literate name.
However, in the follow-up investigation, it was found that the name of Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard was actually problematic, because the club had an affiliated enterprise named "Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard Business Hotel Co., Ltd.". Many fans believe that this is undoubtedly hitting Chen Haoyuan's face.
The hotel of the same name is not an investor of the club, but a wholly-owned subsidiary of the club. Therefore, it is not wrong to take the name of the snow leopard in Tianshan, Xinjiang as a model of "neutralization".
What is debatable is the next operation of the Football Association. Because the Football Association stipulates "affiliated enterprises", subsidiaries are also within this scope. Although the name Tianshan Snow Leopard can be passed by the Football Association, the hotel must be renamed.
So, what is wrong with this operation? First of all, we should make it clear that the name "neutral" is only a symbol of the independent operation of the team, that is to say, the club must become a real market subject in order to be a "neutral" name.
If the club wants to operate independently, it must at least achieve a basic balance of income and expenditure, which requires the club to make every effort to generate income. Opening a hotel is a common means for clubs to generate income.
If you are interested, you can log on to official website of some English teams. Later, you will find that most of their official website websites have links to hotels run by clubs, and even the Football Association runs hotels in St George's Park.
For Premier League teams, hotel revenue may be just the rain in Mao Mao, but for small and medium-sized teams, it is a very important income.
As for whether the names of these hotels are consistent with the names of the teams, there is no hard and fast rule, and it is entirely up to the club to decide according to its business needs.
Clubs in China need to expand their business scope if they want to operate independently. Now the Football Association forces Xinjiang Club to change its name to the hotel, which will undoubtedly have an impact on the operation of the club.
It can also be seen from this incident that the renaming of the Football Association is also a face-saving project, with the purpose of simply renaming it. As long as the name can be changed, whether the club can operate independently or even survive is the club's own business, not the Football Association's.
If you have to ask the Football Association "What if the club can't survive after changing its name", the answer is probably Degang Guo's classic line: "What a suck! Go to hell! "
Talk about Shandong Luneng again. Originally, Luneng didn't have to change its name, but the Football Association broke its word and gained weight, which made Luneng involved in the whirlpool of name change.
However, Luneng fans are not worried, as long as the word "Luneng" is removed and changed back to "Shandong Taishan", it is also a completely acceptable result.
Unexpectedly, this name also got stuck in the Football Association because of its conflict with the name of Shandong Taishan Health Technology Company, a subsidiary of Jinan Lv Wen Group.
According to the regulations, there is nothing wrong with the Football Association failing to pass the examination, but in implementation, the Football Association is too dogmatic. The so-called "name neutrality" actually means de-advertising. Simply put, the team should have its own name, not the advertising investor.
So, will the word "Mount Tai" have an advertising effect? Definitely not. There are many products and enterprises named after Mount Tai in Shandong. If you don't specifically mention related enterprises or products, most people's understanding of "Mount Tai" will not exceed the scope of Mount Tai itself.
Take the affiliated enterprises involved this time as an example. As long as there is no "Taishan Health Technology" in the name of the team, it is estimated that many fans don't know that there is such a company. Therefore, even if the word "Taishan" appears in the name of the affiliated enterprise, it will not affect the neutralization of "Taishan in Shandong".
Some people may say that the effect of advertising is only your own subjective impression, not counting. Yes, whether there is an advertising effect can't be based on personal impression, but it's not impossible.
Whether the name is neutral or not and whether it has advertising effect, the Football Association can hire a professional organization to evaluate it. When conducting FFP audit, UEFA will also hire professional organizations such as Bafang Sports to evaluate the fair value of the club's commercial contracts, so as to prevent the team from using commercial contracts to inflate its income.
This is called letting professional people do professional things. After all, although the Football Association is a rulemaker, it is not professional in many details. Hiring professional organizations and personnel can solve these defects.
However, the Football Association has never faced up to its own shortcomings, and has always been an attitude of "as long as you give an order, you will execute it".
Fortunately, Jinan Lv Wen and Taishan Health Science and Technology are state-owned assets, which can be solved quickly through coordination. If it involves influential private enterprises, I'm afraid it's hard to keep the name "Taishan Mountain in Shandong". This originally neutral, historical and cultural name can only be stifled by the Football Association's neutral policy.
Although the Football Association has attracted many fans to vomit, there are still some individuals who wash the ground for the Football Association: "This is the rule. How can you be melodramatic in your club? "
If you also hold this view, then you must understand the fact that not all regulations are scientific and reasonable, especially the China Football Association, which is a place with a high incidence of exotic regulations.
Let's just say that this regulation on affiliated enterprises is very unscientific. From the original intention, the name change is to achieve the neutrality of the team name. As for whether the name is neutral or not, it has a certain relationship with the affiliated enterprises, but it is not completely related.
Or take "Mount Tai in Shandong" as an example. Assuming that the team has nothing to do with Taishan Health Technology Co., Ltd., Taishan Health Technology Co., Ltd. became an advertiser of the team's jerseys after the name of "Shandong Taishan" was passed on, then the company undoubtedly got twice the advertising effect-not only the jerseys were promoted, but also the team name was promoted invisibly.
Once this happens, is the name of this team still neutral? Definitely not. If the Football Association wants to interfere, there are only three ways, one is to rename the team, the other is to rename the advertiser, and the third is to terminate the transaction forcibly. But no matter which way the Football Association takes, it will make an international joke.
In essence, it is the same for Shanghai to change its name to Shanghai Port. According to the requirements of relevant parties, you can try to say this name, but it is not a "neutral" name. I can only say that everyone has a steelyard in his heart.
Therefore, the relationship between name neutrality and affiliated enterprises is not completely bordered. In those places where there are no boundaries, the Football Association must have a set of careful supporting measures, not only to prevent loopholes, but also to avoid detours by the club.
However, there is only one supporting measure for the Football Association: one size fits all. Under this move, the Football Association has deviated from the original intention of renaming, and the vigorous "renaming" movement has also developed into a farce.
Actually, it's not surprising that it turned into a farce. The basic duties of the Football Association are to develop national youth training, promote football and train management referees. Everyone knows how well the Football Association has done these things. Even if you can't do your job well, doing extra work is definitely a mess.
With copper as a mirror, you can be well dressed; Taking history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall. After the "renaming" is over, I hope that the Football Association can also take this movement as a mirror to see how powerful it is, and then accept the magical power of those chaos.