2024-03-10 03:51:57
Play beautiful football and become a club close to citizens – Exclusive interview with the general manager of Shenzhen Xinpengcheng Club
Xinhua News Agency, Shenzhen, March 9th: Playing beautiful football and becoming a club close to citizens – Exclusive interview with the general manager of Shenzhen Xinpengcheng Club
Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Haoming
On the evening of the 10th, Shenzhen Xinpengcheng Football Club will make its home debut in the Chinese Super League at Shenzhen Baoan Stadium. How will this much-watched team appear in front of fans? As a club under City Football Group, can Shenzhen Xinpeng City inject fresh blood into Chinese professional football? What kind of chemical reaction will it have with the city of Shenzhen? A few days ago, Xinhua News Agency reporters conducted an exclusive interview with Tang Xigang, CEO of City Football Group China and general manager of Shenzhen Xinpengcheng Football Club.
Settling in Shenzhen: a carefully considered decision
Shenzhen Xinpengcheng Football Club was formerly Sichuan Jiuniu Club. It was promoted to the Chinese Super League following winning the Chinese League Championship in 2023. The club went through a series of procedures and moved to Shenzhen following being approved by the Chinese Football Association. Tang Xigang said that choosing to settle in Shenzhen was a decision made following careful consideration.
“First of all, Shenzhen is a first-tier city and one of the core cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. We are very optimistic regarding the sports development prospects of the Greater Bay Area. Next year’s National Games will also be held in the Greater Bay Area, and Shenzhen also has plans to build an internationally renowned sports city. A series of exciting plans.” Tang Xigang said.
In addition, the sports policies and infrastructure improvements introduced by the Shenzhen Municipal Government are also important factors in attracting clubs to settle here. “(The policy) not only targets football, but also concerns the entire sports industry such as professional sports clubs and events. The Shenzhen government has a strong desire to develop sports, and the city’s sports infrastructure is also constantly improving.”
“For example, Shenzhen is renovating the old sports center. After the renovation is completed, it will become a new sports landmark in Shenzhen. This will have an immeasurable effect on Shenzhen sports, whether it is national fitness or professional sports.” Tang Xigang said.
Season goal: Stand firm and play beautiful football
In the first round of the Chinese Super League, Shenzhen Xinpengcheng visited Hangzhou and narrowly lost to the Zhejiang team by one goal. Tang Xigang said that as a new Chinese Super League team, the primary goal this season is to gain a foothold in the top league.
“In the Chinese Super League, we must first establish a foothold, be realistic in our positioning in the first year, and then steadily improve our results on this basis. After we entered the Super League, we also introduced some new players. We hope to show off our tactical style first and achieve better results. Be able to hand in a satisfactory answer.”
Tang Xigang said that in terms of tactical style, he hopes Shenzhen Xinpeng City can play beautiful football like other clubs under the City Football Group.
“Our style of play still hopes to uphold this kind of beautiful football, ornamental technical flow and offensive football. We not only want to win the game, but also make the game exciting and attractive.” Tang Xigang said.
Beyond the game: Go deep into communities and schools to create “clubs around you”
Tang Xigang believes that in addition to the game itself, the experience on game day is also crucial. “For 15 home days, the most important thing is to give every fan who comes to watch the game a good experience, so that they will come back, want to come next weekend, want to come all season, come next year, and the year following that. . Only in this way can a kind of inheritance be formed, a home court culture be created, a fan economy be developed, and only then can the club achieve a virtuous cycle in business,” Tang Xigang said.
Shenzhen is a city of innovation and a young city. How does professional football reflect the characteristics of Shenzhen and how can it have a deeper chemical reaction with this city?
“I hope that our home stadium will be full of technology in the future. In fact, since we came to Shenzhen, we have been intensively in contact with some technology companies, including companies in artificial intelligence, big data, medical health, etc., which can help all aspects of professional club operations. There are a lot of these technology companies in Shenzhen that are helping. This is one of the reasons why we chose to come to Shenzhen. We must definitely look for cooperation opportunities in this regard.” Tang Xigang said.
A Chinese Super League team only plays 15 home games in a season. In addition to these 15 match days, as a professional club, what does it do for the other 350 days in a year? Tang Xigang said that it is necessary to go deep into schools and communities and truly take root in the city.
“We are currently making intensive preparations, including social media operations and content production. We hope that our players and coaches can regularly go into the community and campus, so that everyone feels that our club is not far away and mysterious, but right here. Around.” Tang Xigang said.
He said that Shenzhen Xinpengcheng has now established a youth training department, with all coaches at all levels in place, and is ready to establish extensive cooperation with education groups and schools in Shenzhen in terms of echelon construction. “How to get every child in an ordinary school to participate in football is an important issue for us to consider. Only by making the base bigger will there be an elite echelon and then move up. This is a system, and it certainly does not happen overnight. It can be achieved,” he said.
After learning that Shenzhen has started to implement the policy of “one physical education class per day” in the compulsory education stage, Tang Xigang said: “This policy is very good, I really want to praise it. It means that schools have more time for physical education every day, which gives Professional football clubs like ours entering campuses provide a very direct platform, and we have room to exert our efforts. We hope to introduce the excellent training concepts and practices of City Football Group into communities and schools in Shenzhen.”
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