Historically, the Chinese Youth Super League has always only heard the sound and not seen the landing.

As early as 2011, Chinese football experts called for the formation of a regular youth super league, just like the English youth league of football, the U18 echelon of each club plus three or four U19 players, to hold a regular league with a home and away system.

This problem can solve a huge pain point in Chinese youth football - the number of matches.

According to Zhang's understanding, before 2011, the average annual number of matches played by young players of all ages in China was only about 20. After 2011, the Chinese Football Association integrated and adjusted the youth competition system, which made this dilemma begin to improve, and it was at this time that many people of insight who have been concerned about the cultivation of Chinese football youth, including Xu Genbao, put forward the idea of the Chinese Youth Super League.

But for various reasons, this idea has been raised, and at the annual Football Association meeting, the proposal is put forward more than once, and it is always put down again.

Although football has become hot in recent years, many invitational tournaments and confrontation matches have come into being, and the youth teams participating in the "U-shaped" events of the Chinese Football Association can generally reach nearly 30 games a year, but this is not enough.

Because the world's standard for the number of youth games per year is about 60, the number of games played by Chinese youth teams is not even half of this standard.

In China's two neighbours, for example, in Japan, a youth team participates in nearly 30 nationally organized competitions a year, but they also participate in a large number of regional competitions, and the number of matches should be 50 to 60 in a year.

In South Korea, youth soccer has been played on a home-and-away basis for a long time, with an average of between 60 and 100 games played per year.

As for the comparison with the youth league in the United Kingdom, it is even worse.

The English Youth Super League has as many as 28 regular matches in the round-robin stage of the team every year, as well as play-off knockout rounds, various official invitational tournaments every year, and a lift system.

And when Zhang Sheng mentioned the lower level of the event similar to the British Youth League, Zhang Jian also said a little helplessly: "We also want to do it in one step, but the actual situation does not allow it." Software and hardware facilities, the quality of the game, and the population base of youth football are not achieved overnight. This youth super league is not the first day of the proposal, we have been preparing for it, we are laying out the budget, and we are negotiating with the local football associations, clubs, and football schools. This year, the copyright of the Chinese Super League has been sold at a sky-high price, and we are also considered to be rich, so we officially put this matter on the agenda. ”

What Zhang Sheng didn't know was that the Youth Super League of Chinese football was officially held in 2017, and the enthusiastic registration of the year scared the Chinese Football Association that organized the event, and many teams were blocked out of the door because of the lack of preparation for various conditions, but it is conceivable that it will get better and better in the future, and the influence will become greater and greater.

In fact, the holding of a large-scale event is indeed as Zhang Jian said, and many external conditions must be met before they can be ripe.

The first is the issue of funding.

The Chinese Super League is now more and more people's attention, and the copyright is becoming more and more expensive, and the funding has improved.

In fact, in the past, everyone always said that the Chinese Football Association is not a director, and the dividends are paid for nothing, but in fact, the National Sports and Sports General Bureau is the most powerful for the Football Association's blood drawing, and most of the sponsorship and other expenses obtained by the Football Association every year are shared by the projects that may produce good results in the "Olympic Strategy".

Every year, the Football Association can use 20% of its own sponsorship costs, which is a thankful thing.

And now the sky-high copyright price, the mandatory share of youth football in the copyright fee, finally let the Chinese Football Association have enough money to host, you must know that the referee fee, organization fee, team subsidy is not a small amount.

The second is the issue of personnel.

Many fans who don't know much feel that Chinese football is so poor, and the Chinese Football Association still feeds "so many" people in the Football Association, which is a complete waste of money, but those who really understand the situation know that the Chinese Football Association is not too many, but too few.

When FIFA came to the Chinese Football Association to assist in the work this year, I was shocked to hear that the Football Association only had 68 staff members, which was not the kind of shock in UC News and Tencent News, but was really shocked, because compared to a populous country like China that is interested in developing football, this number of people is too few.

You must know that the number of people in the neighboring Japan and South Korea Football Associations is about 150 and 120 respectively, and the FA is as many as 300 people.

Although in addition to the Chinese Football Association, there are local football associations, which seem to be bloated, but the local football association is a real non-governmental organization, the personnel are part-time, and the office location is also rubbing.

For example, there are only five people in the youth department of the Chinese Football Association, and it is a fantasy to organize a national event of thousands of people without the support of many parties.

In addition to money and people, China's vast territory is also a headache, according to Zhang Jian, without the development of China's roads, railways, especially high-speed rail and intercity high-speed rail in recent years, the back and forth time of players alone occupies a large part of the event.

And the lack of young players and youth coaches is also a big problem, when the Chinese Football Association Youth Department received the task of carrying out the regional home and away system, the Youth Department once became the object of ridicule, many people, even including the old staff of the Football Association, ridiculed the director of the Youth Department: "Such a huge project, such a few people, such a foundation, how can you complete it?"

This time, the Chinese Football Association also made a bloody investment, recruited 15 contract employees from the society at one time, allocated a budget of 50 million, communicated with various local football associations and governments, and divided the competition into five regions, namely North China, South China, Central China, Northeast China, and Western China.

After the end of the first stage of the weekend league, there will be the second stage of the regional finals, followed by the third stage of the Reserve Force Elite Tryouts.

And from the beginning of the event, it was divided into U17, U16, U15, U14 four age groups, at this stage is to prepare 8 teams for each age group, and will develop to 10 to 15 teams in the future, once the conditions are ripe, the U17 age group will also have a lift system, and the coordination of the U19 age group will also be put on the agenda.

Of course, because the event has just been prepared, the previous U series events and National Games events will be retained, and when the Youth Super League is on track, all these scattered events will be merged.

Once the Youth Super League is on the right track, it is of great significance to the training of young players.

Historically, the English Youth Premier League began in 1997, as the tournament became more and more formal, after the tempering of the Youth Super League, the level of young players has improved a lot, and the results of England's youth teams are getting better and better, especially in 2017, England's U17 and U20 youth teams have lifted the World Junior Championship and World Youth Championship trophies in South Korea and India.

In Zhang Sheng's view, as long as Chinese youth football can persist in this development, the future of Chinese football is also extremely bright, and the news of participating in the award ceremony this time is far more valuable than the awards won by the club.

After the award ceremony, the national team's match against Bhutan on the second day became the highlight again, and the Chinese national team also ushered in a big win on Double 11 Singles' Day, the day when the whole network was bought.

In view of the fact that the Longteng team has just finished playing the AFC Champions League and returned to China from thousands of miles away, and the opponent Bhutan is very weak, the head coach Perrin put most of the Longteng team players on the bench, and the players of Guangzhou Evergrande became the main framework on the field, and finally the Chinese team with a substitute lineup won the opponent with a score of 15:0.

After the victory over Bhutan, the Chinese team will play against Hong Kong, China, which is much more arrogant than Bhutan.

In order to encourage the team, the Hong Kong team of China offered the highest winning prize in history, the Hong Kong FA winning prize alone was as high as an unprecedented 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars, plus the Hong Kong team's suit sponsor took out another 500,000 Hong Kong dollars, and the winning prize of 2 million Hong Kong dollars was even higher than that of the Chinese team.

And because of the Hong Kong independence elements in the previous game booing the Chinese national anthem, FIFA punished the Hong Kong FA, the stadium that can accommodate 6,000 spectators is only allowed to sell 3,000 tickets, and it is also a big enemy in terms of security, compared to the usual 12 police security personnel, this time the Hong Kong FA and the Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department hired 200 security personnel to be responsible for the security of the stadium, in addition, there are 1,200 police officers outside the stadium to participate in crowd control and control.

At the same time, the entrance aisles of the home and away fans are separated, the stands are isolated far away, and there are separate snack shops and toilets under the stands of the away team, which is the first time that the Hong Kong FA has made such an arrangement.

In the game, except for Nie Jiang, who had just returned to China and was placed on the bench for 3 days, the national team players of the Longteng team all appeared on the stage, plus Zheng Zhi, the captain of the Chinese team, was booed by the home team fans because of the previous conflict with the Hong Kong players, and the game was as in history, the Chinese team hit the goal frame 5 times in the first half, of which Qin Minghao contributed two, Ding Huaiyi contributed one, and Qin Minghao's effective goal was blown off by the referee of the game.

The TV broadcast frequently pointed the camera at Nie Jiang on the bench, and the commentator also said anxiously: "Qin Minghao and Ding Huaiyi are both midfielders, shooting is not their strong point, Nie Jiang should be sent on the field as a striker of Zhengyin." ”

At halftime, Perrin really made adjustments, Nie Jiang replaced the starting center Yang Xu, the substitution operation quickly paid off, only three minutes into the second half, Nie Jiang received Qin Minghao's straight plug in the penalty area, and after receiving the ball, he got rid of the shot, and the ball flew straight into the upper right corner of the goal.

Seeing this goal, the commentator also breathed a sigh of relief: "Nie Jiang has continued his fiery form to the national team, and this talented young player who is less than 18 years old has broken the deadlock and is worthy of being the double winner of the Golden Boot and Golden Ball Award of the World Junior Championships." ”

After the goal, the Chinese team seemed to have opened a valve, with Nie Jiang's first goal, the follow-up goals followed, first Wu Lei, who had just become a father for the first time, expanded the score to 2:0, and then Qin Minghao and Ding Huaiyi also scored a goal each, and finally ended with a brace by Nie Jiang before the end of the game.

In the end, the Chinese team made the score hoped by the Hong Kong FA come true, and the score of 0:5 was indeed five goals, but the home team was in front and the away team was behind, and the Chinese team scored five.

Compared with the 0:0 score in history, the referee hacked a penalty and a goal, and this time the Chinese team, which has more Longteng players, once again proved that on the field, it is ineffective to make some small moves, and when the difference in strength is too great, how to lose or how to lose.

Compared with the praise in various media, Zhang Sheng, who had long expected this result, did not have any fluctuations in his heart, if he summoned so many good players and could not change the result of the game against the Hong Kong team, then simply find a noodle to hang himself.

Compared with the two weak opponents of the Chinese team this time, Zhang Sheng is more concerned about the four-nation tournament held in Jiangcheng, and the opponents invited by the Chinese Football Association in this four-nation tournament are all good, including Colombia, Morocco and South Korea.

There are as many as 10 Longteng players (including those on loan) in the training team of the National Olympic team, which is a good opportunity for Zhang Sheng to test their abilities.

Judging from the performance of the national Olympic team in the game, they played quite well, after defeating Colombia 1:0 in the first game, the second game was 6:0 swept the Moroccan team that had played against the national Olympic team in the Toulon Cup, and in the last key game, facing the South Korean Olympic team with the main force, the Chinese Olympic team relied on Xiong Jian's long shot and Zou Weijia's header to win the opponent 2:1.

Although it is only a warm-up game, it can be seen that this national Olympic team has no Longteng team to stay with foreign players, with the help of school-age players who were selected into the national team, the strength is slightly superior to the South Korean national Olympic team, and the only point that may be behind is the head coach, Fu Bo, who has always been extremely valued by the Chinese Football Association, has once again become the coach of the national Olympic team, Rick Link, the head of the youth team, is also very familiar with the national Olympic team, and the coach who just helped the national youth team win the World Junior Championship has returned to the position of the head of the youth team.

However, Zhang Sheng didn't have much to worry about this matter, because as time passed, the second leg of the AFC Champions League of the Longteng team was getting closer and closer, and Zhang Sheng needed to "entertain" the opponent who came from afar.