Double super in one city! Why is Qingdao football fruitful？

Public Network reporter Mao Daoguang reports from Qingdao

The past weekend has become the most unforgettable day for Qingdao football!

In the 29th round of League A, Qingdao West Coast, which holds the initiative, beat Guangzhou team 2-0, thus locking the Super League seat in advance for next season. At this point, there are two Super League teams for the first time in the history of Qingdao football, and it has become the seventh city in China that will soon have the "Super League Derby" after Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Success is never achieved overnight. In the past ten years, Qingdao professional football has set foot on the top of the mountain and once fell into a trough. Fortunately, Qingdao football has never given up lightly, and with a tenacity, it has regained the road of chasing dreams in difficulties.

One city "double super"! At this moment, Qingdao football has realized the "dream of two heroes" in the top leagues in China, and let the whole country see the profound connotation of "Football City" and let football become the shining business card of this city again!

01

Looking back at Qingdao football in recent years, there are too many moments worth remembering!

Drinking ice for 9 years, blood is hard to cool! After many years of silence, Qingdao Manatee returned to the Super League from China B, and made its home debut 10 years later in Youth Stadium, the first 50,000 professional football stadium newly opened in Shandong this season, beating former enemy Beijing Guoan 3-1, which made countless fans dream back to 10 years ago and rekindled the hope of Qingdao football.

Qingdao West Coast Football Club, formerly known as Qingdao Kangtaiyuan Commercial Concrete Football Team, was established in 2007. In 2019, it was awarded the qualification of Grade B, and officially entered the China Football Professional League in 2020. In April, 2022, Qingdao Youth Island Football Club officially moved into German Football Asia Base. After playing in League A in the 2022 season, the young team hit it off with the West Coast, a city of youth, and set a more ambitious goal: changing its name to the West Coast, fighting for Qingdao and fighting for the West Coast New District.

The home relocation to Qingdao West Coast University Town Stadium marks that Qingdao West Coast New District has the first team to compete in professional football matches. As a new landmark of the West Coast New District, Guzhenkou University Town Stadium can accommodate 20,000 people and is one of the closest stadiums in China. It has been officially unveiled and put into use on May 10th this year. As the home of Qingdao West Coast Team in League A and Qingdao Red Lion Team in League B, it has been frequently unveiled in national competitions.

This autumn, Qingdao Manatee relegated to the Super League two rounds ahead of schedule, Qingdao West Coast overtook the Super League one round ahead of schedule, and Qingdao women’s football team returned to the domestic women’s football professional league, all of which are inseparable from the silent cultivation of Qingdao football for many years. With the end of the "Jinyuan Football" era, the inherent advantages of Qingdao football have gradually emerged, and the achievements of football development and youth training have blossomed everywhere, which has also polished the "golden signboard" of football again.

"The success of the West Coast Club is inseparable from the attention of the municipal party committee and the municipal government and the support from all walks of life. With two super league teams, Qingdao football has reached a new height. I hope that we can make persistent efforts next, and Qingdao Football can continue to contribute to China Football. " Tian Weiguo, director of Qingdao Football Activity Management Center, said this.

02

As a prestigious "Football City", on January 25th, 2022, Qingdao was successfully selected as one of the first nine key cities for football development in China during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. This is the third time that Qingdao has won this honor since 1979 and 1992. In 2023, Qingdao Football has achieved full coverage of football professional clubs at all levels, including Super League, China A, China B, Women A and Five Super League.

The achievement of such excellent results is inseparable from Qingdao’s policy support for football development.

In terms of support for professional sports clubs, Qingdao Sports Bureau issued the Measures for Supporting and Encouraging High-level Professional Sports Clubs in Qingdao according to the spirit of the document "Implementation Opinions on Promoting National Fitness and Sports Consumption to Promote High-quality Development of Sports Industry". The Qingdao Municipal Sports Bureau will set up a sports industry support incentive fund, which will invest 35 million yuan every year to support the high-level professional sports clubs in Qingdao, and reward them according to the results of professional leagues.

In November of the same year, the leading group for the promotion of football reform and development in Qingdao also issued the "Construction Plan of National Key Cities for Football Development in Qingdao during the Tenth Five-Year Plan". The plan clearly sets the goals to be achieved by 2025, focusing on building 1-2 super league teams; Realize the 9-level elite echelon of Super League Club and the 7-level elite echelon of Zhongjia Club; Set up 1-2 professional women’s football clubs … and the goal of focusing on building 1-2 super league teams was first fulfilled this autumn.

Looking at the whole country, there are only a handful of cities that can be called "football cities". Qingdao has enjoyed a good reputation for many years, which is inseparable from its excellent youth training system and good youth football competitions.

For a long time, Qingdao youth football has a profound foundation and outstanding achievements in youth training. The traditional event "Mayor Cup" campus football league has gone through 32 seasons. The league also achieved full coverage from the primary school, junior high school, senior high school and university four-level campus football league system. By the end of 2021, the "Mayor Cup" campus football league had organized 3,694 games, in which 22,553 players from 1,510 teams participated. Qingdao campus football is constantly exploring the deeper field of integration of sports and education. The introduction of a series of security policies and the practice of trying first provide protection for children who like playing football and take care of their studies.

By 2023, 10 Qingdao athletes, including Wang Ziming, Liu Yang, Li Lei, Wei Zhang, Wang Haobin, Li Suda, Liu Chen, Zhang Yiqian, Shuo Yang and Shao Mingzhen, have been selected into national football teams at all levels, and outstanding talents are constantly emerging; Qingdao U9-U14 football team won five championships in six groups in the 2023 Shandong Football Championship, and Qingdao U16 women’s football team became the first team to advance to the top four of the National Student (Youth) Games, with excellent competitive results.

In addition, Dong Lu, a well-known football commentator, also praised Qingdao’s youth training in the recent live broadcast. He said that Qingdao has a large number of football talents and good football development genes. Youth training clubs such as Qingdao West Coast Football Club and Qingdao Zhuifeng Youth Football Club have performed very well on the field, and many high-level athletes and coaches are also impressive.

03

"Fight, Qingdao team!" It is not only a slogan, but also engraved into the football memory of a generation.

Counting the football history of Qingdao, at the beginning of the China Professional League, Qingdao established its own professional team-Qingdao Manatee. The time can be traced back to December 31st, 1993. Qingdao Manatee Football Club was formally established, and it became one of the founding teams of Chinese Football Association Super League together with Shandong Taishan, Beijing Guoan, Tianjin Jinmenhu and Shenzhen Team.

In 2002, Qingdao Yizhong Manatee hired Li Zhangzhu, a famous Korean coach, as the head coach, and the team won the China Football Association Cup, which was the first national championship in the history of Qingdao professional football. Qingdao Huanghai Qinggang Team won the championship in the 2019 season and successfully overtook it. In the 2020 season, Qingdao Manatee Team and Qingdao West Coast Team also staged the "Qingdao Derby" in the second season. In the 2021 season, the Qingdao Manatee team took the lead in rushing to the A, and the West Coast team subsequently succeeded in rushing to the A in the play-offs of the 2021 season. In the 2022 season, the two teams will continue to stage the "Qingdao Derby" in the Chinese team. Last year, the Manatees took the lead in overtaking, and the West Coast team gained a foothold in the Chinese team. By the 2023 season, the West Coast team was successful, while the Manatee team was successful in relegation in the Super League.

At the recently concluded 2023 China Qingdao Fashion Sports Industry Conference, Liu Jianhong attended as a guest, also talked about Qingdao at the scene, and praised the development of Qingdao football. He said, "In 1996, as a reporter of CCTV’s Football Night, I came to Qingdao to interview League A and B, and witnessed the process of the Manatees returning from League A to League A that year." After leaving CCTV, Liu Jianhong came to Qingdao again in 2021. He presided over the expedition ceremony of Qingdao Manatee. The Manatee was successfully upgraded from B in that year, and it was successful at the end of 2022. Today, the Manatee has become a strong force in the Super League again. As a football city, Qingdao and Liu Jianhong have witnessed the ups and downs of Qingdao football for so many years.

In the long history of football development in China, Qingdao football has experienced ups and downs, but it has never been absent.

04

Derby is an unavoidable topic in a region where football is booming. Two teams in the same region staged a "peak showdown", accompanied by tens of thousands of fans shouting like a tsunami, the two sides joined hands in the game to contribute to the offensive and defensive war, and the fierce physical confrontation and the collision of beliefs among fans undoubtedly made it the most eye-catching game at present, which also made the football economy "hot"!

Looking around the world, there are the famous Manchester derby and North London derby in the Premier League, the national derby between Real Madrid and Barcelona in La Liga, the "Milan duo" in Serie A, and the most intense national derby between Boca and Riverbed Argentina.

In China, the derby in the same city is also one of the most concerned games. Compared with the "Jinglu War" and "Jingyue War", the once Guangzhou Derby, Wuhan Derby and Tianjin Derby gradually disappeared from public view with the fading of "Jinyuan Football". Now, the joining of Qingdao Derby not only injects fresh blood into the league, but also appears more precious in timing.

Looking forward to the 2024 season, Qingdao will usher in the "city derby" of the Super League for the first time, Qingdao manatee and Qingdao West Coast will usher in "love and kill each other", and the "football economy" will gradually spread from the north shore of Jiaozhou Bay, which was on fire this year, to the west coast of Jiaozhou Bay. At that time, the two teams will also dedicate a wonderful showdown for Qingdao and even the national fans.

One city "double super"! This is an affirmation of the hard work of Qingdao football for many years, and it has injected a "cardiotonic agent" into the development of Qingdao football. Whether manatees avoid relegation, or the West Coast overtake, or the gradual improvement of the youth training system, to a certain extent, it reflects the long-term vision and unremitting pursuit of Qingdao’s football career development.

Dapeng rises with the wind in one day, soaring to Wan Li. In the future, Qingdao Football will take advantage of the east wind of "building a key city for national football development" to vigorously promote the deepening of football reform, do a good job in training and transporting youth football, comprehensively improve the overall development level of football, and make the reputation of "Football City" a "golden signboard" of Qingdao.