What does football mean to Shanghai? Gu Jiqing positioned Shanghai Shenhua as "three highs"

Reporter Chen Yong reports Gu Jiqing, chairman of Shenhua Club, is a senior fan, and when chatting with Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, late at night on the 16th, the two can always clearly recall the past of Chinese football, even down to the details. Of course, he is also a senior sports administrator, from the F1 Chinese Grand Prix, Tennis Masters Cup, Shanghai Athletics Golden Grand Prix, Shanghai Men's Basketball Team, etc., he has been there; At the 2024 China Football Development Seminar, which was jointly sponsored by "Football" and Xi'an Sports Bureau, he showed his interesting side, and the theme of his speech was "Summary of the Thoughts of 31-year-old Second-year Students", which was highly consistent with the seminar titled "Theme Class Meeting of Chinese Football".

When Gu Jiqing faced the reality and future of Shenhua as the vice president of Jiushi Group and the general manager of Shanghai Shenhua, he stood at a higher height and summarized the positioning of football and Shanghai Shenhua: the special symbol of the city's high-quality development, the core content of the city's high-quality life, and the practical scenario of the city's high-efficiency governance. He also proposed that Shanghai Shenhua should abide by eight words in its own development strategy: respect the law and abide by the rules. And the level of competition, management efficiency, management ability and brand value as the four major tasks.

"Let the flowers of Shanghai City bloom more gorgeously and more brilliantly, so that the fans of Shanghai Shenhua can be more satisfied." This is Gu Jiqing's expectation.

In his speech at the 2024 China Football Development Seminar, Gu Jiqing first introduced the industrial and social responsibilities of football, including Shanghai Shenhua Football Club, from the industrial and social levels: professional football is the core content of the development of the sports industry, and football has a wide audience and huge industrial scale, and occupies an important position in global sports governance; The development level of professional sports is a measure of the comprehensive strength of the city, and football has become an important means to shape the soft power of the city (country), and plays an important role in building Shanghai into a socialist modern international metropolis with world influence. Shanghai Shenhua's positioning in the city is divided into three aspects: the special symbol of high-quality urban development, the core content of high-quality urban life, and the practical scenario of high-efficiency urban governance.

In 2020, Shanghai issued the Outline for the Construction of a World-Famous Sports City in Shanghai. In this speech, Gu Jiqing also pointed out that football is a special symbol of the city's high-quality development: Shanghai is currently in the critical stage of accelerating the construction of a socialist modern international metropolis with world influence, and Shanghai is committed to building a world-famous sports city and a world-class international competition capital.

Gu Jiqing said in his speech that with the rapid development of the online business model, the offline business model has declined significantly, and in this context, sports consumption has risen rapidly, including the stable ball market of Shanghai Shenhua, and the Shenhua team will play an important role in the improvement of the city's high-quality life.

At the level of high-efficiency urban governance, holding large-scale football events is a comprehensive test of the urban governance system. By hosting a series of important domestic and foreign competitions, including professional football leagues, Shanghai has further improved its public management system and promoted the overall improvement of its urban management capabilities.

Gu Jiqing said that the central government's requirements for Shanghai are to be the pioneer of reform and opening up and the vanguard of innovation and development. As an important municipal state-owned enterprise, Jiushi Group must participate in it without hesitation.

In Gu Jiqing's view, the concept of Shanghai Shenhua Football Club is to abide by the "double rules", that is, to respect the law and abide by the rules. grasp and apply the law to determine the upper limit of development; The understanding and implementation of the rules determines the bottom line of development.

The four key tasks of Shanghai Shenhua Football Club are competitive level, management efficiency, management ability and brand value. Gu Jiqing said: "Regarding the order of the four major tasks of the club, we have actually thought deeply, as an enterprise, theoretically the management ability should be put in the first place, but from the positioning and reality of Shanghai Shenhua Football Club, considering the expectations of the fans for us, we finally decided to put the competitive level first." ”

In terms of management efficiency, Gu Jiqing said: "State-owned assets do not mean that you can spend money lavishly, and our ability to regulate, restrain and tolerate faults is very limited, so management efficiency is a very important issue." ”

In this regard, through the analysis of many state-owned enterprise clubs and trusteeship clubs, it is not difficult to find that state-owned enterprises have become the mainstream of current investors in Chinese football, which shows more support and even support functions, and the development of professional football must rely on the market. In contrast, through the performance of Shenhua Football Club and Shenhua Team in the 2024 season, Jiushi Group, which has rich experience in the sports industry and management, has become more solid.

In the interview, Gu Jiqing said: "Shenhua is a well-known and long-standing brand, which has the deep feelings of many Shanghainese, and this enthusiasm has always been maintained at a very high level. As a municipal backbone state-owned enterprise, Jiushi Group undertakes the task of reform and has been deeply engaged in the sports industry for a long time, so it is unshirkable. Jiushi took over Shenhua and faced a great challenge, that is, how to operate in an orderly manner for a long time and maintain it at a high level to satisfy all Shanghai fans. But this is also a glorious task, we believe that through the support and empowerment of the group, especially the accumulation of Jiushi's experience and resources in the sports industry, Shenhua, the flower of Shencheng, will bloom more brilliantly and brilliantly, so that Shenhua's fans are more satisfied. ”