Jiangsu fans boycotting Suning has a long history of contradictions and there is a fundamental difference between Shuntian’s withdrawal.

Original title: Jiangsu fans boycott Suning. The contradiction has a long history and is essentially different from Sainty’s withdrawal

On February 28th, Jiangsu Football Club issued an announcement stating that the operation of the clubs’ teams would be suspended. This also announced that Suning Group, which had accompanied the club for 1896 days, officially gave up the club. The actions of Suning Group also put the new Chinese Super League champion Jiangsu team facing a huge risk of dissolution. Seeing the clouded prospects of their beloved team, Jiangsu fans could not sit still. On March 2, a picture of “Boycott Suning is everyone’s responsibility” began to go viral in the Jiangsu fan circle. After Suning Group announced the suspension of the Jiangsu Football Club, the conflict between the fans and the club was completely intensified…

The time goes back to November 22, 2015, when the first round of the 2015 FA Cup final ended at the Nanjing Olympic Stadium, when Jiangsu Sainty drew 0-0 at home with Shanghai Shenhua. Since that game was the last home stadium of the “Shuntian Era” of Jiangsu football, Guoxin Group became more and more difficult due to continuous increase in investment, and subsequently transferred the club as a whole to Jiangsu Suning. Therefore, a large number of Jiangsu fans came to the scene for the Sainty team. Seeing off, there was a big banner-“2000-2015, thank you for having you”. Obviously as the banner of Jiangsu football, “Shuntian” won the hearts of Jiangsu fans.

But now, when Suning Group pulled away for almost the same reason, not only did it not receive the farewell and blessings of Jiangsu fans, but it was also resisted by most of the fans. Perhaps in the eyes of outsiders, Suning, who has invested in the club for 4 years, introduced 33 domestic and foreign aids, burned 160 million euros in transfer fees, and brought Jiangsu a Chinese Super League trophy, and finally left with such a ending. It’s too tragic.

In fact, such a reaction from Jiangsu fans is not surprising. If you pay close attention, you will find that the Jiangsu team’s post bar is still “Jiangsu Suning Bar” and “Jiangsu Sainty Bar”, and they play their own games. The unique phenomenon of Jiangsu football also reflects that the contradiction between Jiangsu football fans and Suning club has a long history.

In 2015, Suning spent RMB 523 million to acquire the Jiangsu Sainty Club, which has persisted for 16 years, and became the new owner of the team. However, after taking over the team, Suning began the club’s renaming plan. At that time, many Jiangsu fans hoped to keep the word “Shuntian” in the name of the team, especially the old fans who have been watching football since the time of the Chinese League, and have accompanied the team through important moments such as promotion and entry into the AFC Champions League. However, Suning did not compromise and insisted on changing the name of the team to Jiangsu Suning. Starting from the removal of the word “Shuntian” from the Jiangsu team, criticisms and opposition came flooding, and there was a gap between some fans and the club from the beginning.

Although Suning Group spent huge sums of money to introduce strong support after entering Jiangsu Football, the investment is not small, but the relationship between the club and Jiangsu fans has always been tense and embarrassing. According to veteran Jiangsu fans, if Suning took over, the club continued to promote the de-Jiangsuization. For example, the cheering slogan was changed from “Jiangsu Fight” to “Suning Fight”, and even the team’s commemorative costumes were also removed from Jiangsu. There is excuse for the practice. So in terms of fan building, Suning seems to have also adopted a tough “corporate management” approach, which is unacceptable. Suning has developed a strict “assessment system” for fan organizations, and has a series of scoring standards for cheering methods, fan slogans, and fan attendance. If the fan organization does not meet the “standards” set by the club, the club will make “punishments”, such as restricting the fan association’s tickets for the following year and canceling the exclusive stand area of ​​the fan association. The Jiangsu 12-member fan club announced at the end of 2016 that it was incompatible with the club’s concept and was forced to disband; in early 2018, the club announced that it would no longer sell tickets for the fans in the North Stand, and the tickets that originally belonged to the fan club area became individual tickets. . At the end of 2019, the Dongzhan Fans League, which was established in 2013, was also reluctantly disbanded. These are actually examples of Suning Club’s management and “restriction” of fans.

Many Jiangsu fans have expressed anger over the cancellation of the “North Stand” by the club. In European football culture, the most loyal fans should always give the strongest support behind the team. The “North Stand” is a fixed position for the team’s “die loyalists” to cheer for the team. Being able to cheer for your beloved team in such stands is not only an honor but also a symbol of status and status. In addition to canceling the “North Stand” at home, in Jiangsu Suning’s away game, Suning will organize local branch employees to cheer. Some of these employees are not fans, and some are even home team fans. They come to cheer under administrative orders. The effect can be imagined.

It is also very important that although Suning entered the home team, Zeng brought in world-class foreign players such as Ramirez and Teixeira. However, the team seemed to have lost the “civilians” at that time compared to the time of Sainty The team’s fighting spirit frequently misses key battles. On June 21, 2019, in the 14th round of the Chinese Super League, Jiangsu Suning lost 0 to 1 at home to Shanghai Greenland Shenhua. After the final whistle, 50,000 Jiangsu fans shouted “refunds”, “fixes”, and even threw objects into the stadium to vent their anger. Before the game, Suning remained unbeaten at home, while Shenhua suffered the longest ties in the history of the team without winning nine rounds. Under such circumstances, Suning’s upset loss made the fans very dissatisfied.

In the game, Suning, who had a comprehensive statistical advantage, made frequent mistakes, and the players’ seemingly abnormal performance reminded the fans of “match-fixing”. After the game, Jiangsu fans reacted fiercely. Some fans even cut their jerseys and annual cards to express their disappointment with the team.

Faced with the doubts of the fans, Suning issued a letter of apology, and took the initiative to hold a fan meeting in the hope of easing the emotions of the fans, but the result was counterproductive. According to media reports, at the talks, the Suning club executives resolutely denied the rumors of match-fixing, but only admitted that the team is not in good shape, and said that they would impose private internal punishment on the team. Subsequently, Jiangsu fans will ask questions four times in a row: First, why are fans forced to use the stand culture to promote corporate culture? Second, why do we need to implement a scoring system for football fans? Third, why did Suning’s large investment cause the loss of fans? Fourth, why did you cancel the Chungbuk Grandstand? Faced with continuous questions from the fan club, the Suning club executives were speechless. The then chairman Wang Zhe even left after an hour of the meeting.

The problem was not resolved, but the conflict between the fans and the club was intensified. Before the home game against Shanghai SIPG, the Jiangsu fan organization issued a call for sit-in and protest. On the day of the match, some of the fans present chose to wear black clothes with their backs to the stadium to express their protest, and even removed the banners in the stands. For a while, the conflict between Suning Club and the fans became a hot topic of discussion among fans across the country. .

Going back to 6 years ago when Jiangsu Sainty Club was acquired by Suning Group. Even though Sainty finally won the FA Cup that season, Guoxin Group, a large provincial state-owned enterprise, has difficulty increasing investment continuously, and it can’t change. Holding it in the hand, it is better to let the more advantageous new team take over. Therefore, from the outside world, this is the last contribution that Sainty has made to Jiangsu football. This is not an irresponsible shirk, on the contrary, it is responsible for Jiangsu football. But now, Suning is because the Lions opened their mouths to scare away the next home that was willing to take over, which caused the team to be on the verge of disbandment. Therefore, in the eyes of more Jiangsu fans, Suning gave up the practice of Jiangsu football and the original Sainty. There is a fundamental difference. Perhaps, at the moment Suning decided to withdraw and leave, he was ready to accept all the comments. Now that the ending cannot be changed, the merits and demerits can only be left to historical commentary…Return to Sohu to see more