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After all, the Guizhou team failed to survive the harsh winter of the post-Jinyuan era of Chinese football. In the 2022 season, the Guizhou team invested by Hengfeng Company did not qualify for the China League One. This team, which once left a wonderful mark in the Chinese Super League, has struggled in operation in the past two years, and has already paved the way for the current results.
Similar to the situation encountered by many domestic “real estate football” clubs, the Guizhou team, which had no choice but to cancel the club and team’s title, has had a very difficult life in recent years. In the past 2021 season, despite being in the Chinese League, Guizhou clubs were still plagued by cash flow problems. In last year’s Guizhou team, well-known foreign coaches and big-name foreign players have long been missing. In the Chinese League last season, it was such a Guizhou team composed of young domestic teams. The operation situation was once very critical.
In November last year, Wen Xiaoting, chairman of the Guizhou team, also worked hard to carry out crisis public relations. While going to the team to stabilize the military as much as possible, she bluntly said in an interview with the media, “Hengfeng has had a lot of reasons since 2020. The cash flow caused by the real estate is not in place, so the wages of the players are intermittent, but it is not arrears.”
However, the result of Mr. Wen’s public relations work only allowed the team to bite the bullet and finish the 2021 season and keep the team’s status as the top league. Even so, at the end of the season, the issue of “wage arrears” has already made the Guizhou team unwilling to fight. Guizhou team defeated Chengdu Rongcheng 2-9, Zhejiang team 1-6, and Meizhou Hakka 0-5. The consecutive big defeats may have already made the outside world feel that the Hengfeng era of Guizhou football is about to say goodbye.
At the beginning of this year, the Guizhou football authority also met with the leadership of the Guizhou club and asked the club to submit registration materials despite the requirements of the Football Association according to the procedure. Although the attitude of Guizhou was very positive at that time, the team was still stumped by the financial problem and did not qualify for the Chinese League this season.
At the end of 2015, Guizhou Hengfeng Weiye Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. took a stake in Guizhou Zhicheng Football Club and changed its name to Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng Football Club. Wen Xiaoting, the beloved daughter of the owner of Hengfeng, who was born in 1990, became the chairman of the club. Mr. Wen was only 26 years old this year.
In the following 2016 season, under the leadership of Guizhou native and former international Li Bing, Guizhou Hengfeng ranked second in the league with 18 wins, 6 draws and 7 losses and accumulated 59 points, and successfully rushed over. Let Guizhou football have a new team to take over the baton in the top league after going through people and times.
The 2017 season can be said to be a warm season in which Guizhou Hengfeng brought infinite warm memories to fans. That year, Hengfeng hired the famous Spanish coach Manzano, who had coaching experience in Guoan and Shenhua, and “Shange” Li Bing became the general manager of the club. In terms of foreign aid, Hengfeng had former Premier League foreign aid Jelavic, former Atletico Madrid team Castro, and powerful players such as McGovern and Orenga that season. In terms of domestic aid, Hengfeng dug in former international Dewey and former Evergrande player Han Pengfei to help out.
In the end, Guizhou Hengfeng ranked 8th in the league with 12 wins, 6 draws, 12 losses and 42 points in 2017, leaving a wonderful legacy for Guizhou football in the top league. In that season, Wen Xiaoting, a beautiful boss with her own traffic, also became a different wonderful scenery in the domestic league. This made Guizhou Hengfeng, which operates at small and medium costs, not lacking in attention in the Chinese Super League, which was full of giant clubs at that time.
The beauty and warmth that Hengfeng brings to Guizhou fans is short-lived. In the 2018 season, a lot has changed. The Guizhou team’s emblem changed color, the word “Zhicheng” disappeared from the club name, and Li Bing and Manzano also bid farewell to Guizhou. The former Liverpool and AC Milan sports director Pedzzoli, who was dug from Italy by the club, was seriously unaccustomed to the position of the CEO of Hengfeng Club. In that season, Guizhou Hengfeng was relegated ahead of schedule with the bottom of the league.
After being relegated to the China League One, Wen Xiaoting and Guizhou Hengfeng have greatly reduced their sense of existence. The double changes in the real estate industry and the domestic football industry have made Hengfeng, like many domestic real estate clubs, embark on the rhythm of rapid decline. In 2020, the arrival of the new crown epidemic and the FIFA fine brought by the former coach Manzano’s delay in paying the penalty have made Guizhou Hengfeng, a family that is not rich, “worse” and now lose the league qualification. The reality is actually as early as expected by the outside world.
The investment in Guizhou football in the past 6 years, the club’s social media that has been suspended for several months, and the affectionate confessions of the team’s veterans such as Jiang Liang, make it difficult to make people feel at this time Hengfeng, which is not a domestic real estate giant, has heart angry. It’s just that Guizhou football, which has gone through the era of Renhe and Hengfeng successively, still cannot see the dawn on the way forward.
Will Hengfeng still play football? Wen Xiaoting once said firmly when the team’s operation crisis came last year, “We are always there, no matter how difficult the process is. I am very grateful to them for supporting us all the time, and we can also guarantee that Guizhou Hengfeng will give Guizhou a gift in the end. Football is a very good explanation.”
However, what finally came was that the team could not get access and missed the Chinese League this season. Wen Xiaoting’s enthusiasm for investing in football and the exaggerated “Hengfeng team emblem” tattoo on her leg faded away in the wave of great changes in the industry.
Text / Chen LengReturn to Sohu, see more
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