Organisation Change in Sport - Case Study Example

Analysis of Chinese Football Association: the Changes and Impact on the Chinese Professional Football Clubs CFA History In the year 1924, the Chinese Football Association or CFA was founded at Beijing, China and it administered the domestic soccer leagues as well as the national team. After seven years, in 1931, the CFA were able to join in Federation Internationale de Football Association or the FIFA. The Chinese Football Association is not an independent organization in China. It became a part of the General Administration of Sport or GAS. At present, their presidents are Xie Yalong and Nan Yong (‘Football in China,’ 2008). On the third day of January, year 1955, the CFA, which is the only organization which manages the football sport on a national scale, was established in Beijing. The CFA consists of associations in each province, autonomous region as well as major municipalities in China, amateur associations of football of different professionals, as well as football associations under the People’s Liberation Army (‘Chinese Football Association,’ 2003). It is a non-governmental as well as non-profit organization. It is a member of All-China Sports Federation and the only legal organization which represents China in FIFA and in Asian Football Confederation or AFC (‘Chinese Football Association,’ 2003). CFA Roles The key roles of CFA are to run the Chinese national football team as well as well as the CFA cup, to develop from grass roots to China team, to represent China in the FIFA as well as AFA, and in order to regulate the whole game which include the rules of the games as well as disciple and setting the overall standards and well as promoting (Xuequan, M., 2007). Before the year 2004, the Chinese Football Association has played a lot of roles in China due to its strong governmental background. CFA has the right to decide how much each club could get in terms of managing television broadcasting rights as well as broadcasting revenues. Transfer of football players between the different clubs are managed by CFA. In addition to that, they are also the ones who manage the profits of the football league wherein included in this are the incomes from the tickets sold as well as the sponsorship. Task of the Association The CFA have the following task which includes, working out strategies to develop Chinese football, increasing public participation in sport, promoting exchanges as well as friendships with FIFA, AFC as well as foreign football Associations and players, making training plan for future football players, organizing training as well as activities of national football team, working out and approving systems rules as well as disciplines of China’s football games, assisting organization of national and international football games, holding training courses for the coaches, judges as well as players and organizing exams and evaluation on the coaches and judges, selecting teams and players to participate international games, and approving judges on the national level, and reporting international judges to FIFA (‘Chinese Football Association,’ 2003). CFA Office, Departments and Committees ‘Involved in CFA are General Office, Foreign Exchange Department, Professional Department, Amateur Department, Development Department, National Team Management Department, Legal Consultant Committee, League of Affairs Committee, Publicity Committee, as well as Discipline Committee’ (‘Chinese Football Association,’ 2003). Problems Encountered By CFA There are problems encountered by CFA which include confusion of roles as well as responsibility of the association. The association has a lot of committees involved and some of them have overlapping responsibilities. Members of the committees were not properly selected, and they did not put much attention on the experience knowledge as well as skills required in selecting each member. In CFA, serious corruptions, including bribe referees are observed. Match-fixing, gambling, violence with the development of professional league are observed (Xuequan, 2007). Events during the season became controversial when they have discovered that some players were betting against their own teams as well as losing games deliberately. There have been suspicions that some of the referees are fixing the matches by awarding questionable penalty kicks as well as handing out cards freely. There are incidents which happened in the game wherein it involves Beijing Hyundai and another one is Dalian Shide. The players were unhappy with the decisions of the referee in their matches and as a sign of protests they abandoned the match at the middle of the game. As a result the CFA took the incidents seriously and they gave punishments docking points off the two guilty teams. The CFA have admitted that the issue of corruption in Chinese football is widespread, like for an instance with gambling which is illegal. This is one of the root causes of the problem. They say that clubs cannot control the players. Moreover the association cannot control the referees and there are reports that indeed this seems to be true (‘Chinese Walkout over Referee Bribes Averted,’ 2004). According to Asian Confederation chief Peter, “corruption could destroy the game in China and all the efforts and money invested on the sport will be wasted if it is not eliminated. The problem of corruption must be solved immediately by actively investigating and eliminating corruption scourge in the Chinese football because if this is not addressed properly football in China will be destroyed. He also added that, the fans must be encouraged to further support the league and bring them back to the stadium to watch the matches (‘Corruption could Kill Football in China – AFC,’ 2005). Stand of CFA on the Irregularities CFA is consistent with their stand and attitude to punish and fight all kinds of irregularities. They point out the association agrees with the aims and interest of football clubs, media, football fans as well as other circles. They hope that all the people as well as the departments involved in the football career stick with the rules as regulations which are issued by the International Football Union as well as the CFA when delivering the remarks and handling the issues (Ruoqian, 2001). The accepted Judicial Intervention of CFA The regulations of the Chinese Football Association based on management of players were released recently. It is stated in the regulations that football players who violate the State law shall be handed over to the judicial organization of the State and will be punished according to the law. With regards to athlete who breaks the regulations, he may be given penalties based on the seriousness of the case which has been violated, by the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CFA or the related clubs. Penalties includes, criticism and education, deduction of wages (1-3 months), suspension in participating matches or for a certain period of time, disqualification from the contests for more than a year or lifetime, and those violating law of the State will be transferred to judicial departments (Ruoqian, 2001). Formation of Task Force In response to the problem of fighting on the issue of corruption, on September 30, 2006, the police as well as the CFA have announced the formation of task force to get rid of illegal gambling in football which has increase the incidence of match-fixing by the corrupt players as well as referees which causes devastation in the countries favorite sports (‘Football Code; China,’ 2008; ‘China’s Corrupt Football,’ 2008; China Football Association,’ 2008). Action Taken by CFA Game fixing is very rampant in football matches and in order to address the problem, the CFA made an action to those coaches who were suspected of fixing the matches. For example, in the case of the two coaches named Chen Yimin, (coach of Chongqing Hongyan) as well as Wang Hongli (coach of Liaoning Tianrun club), who were involved in match fixing both had of their licenses revoked and were given punishments. The clubs were asked to give fine of 50,000 Yuan which is equivalent to $6,000 and were ordered to file a written explanation of their conduct in order to decide if the CFA will give further penalties based on this. In response for making mistakes during the match featuring the lead leaders, Dalian Wanda, the CFA banned a referee. The referee’s bias, according to the club, had robbed them the chance of a league and cup double (‘Sport: Football Fixing Allegations in China,’ 1998). Changes in the Organization and its Reasons There are changes that was observed in the organization and the reason why there evolved such changes are explained in this study. The organization consists of four main external factors which contribute to its changes such as political, social economic as well as technology. The External Changes that are observed involves the following areas which includes: 1) changes in the General Administration of Sports Development were observed for the reason that the CFA has low efficiency, 2) changes in the football clubs are evident, since they were not able to get enough profit from the football league including broadcast, 3) changes in the fans are also observed basically because of the terrible performance of the national football team as well as the low quality of the football league, the fans are forced to leave and lost their interest in the league (Xuequan, M., 2007), and 4) changes in the football schools are also observed, since the association spent less money in developing. In addition to that there is an internal change which is observed in the business committee. CFA Resistance to Change They have to be controlled by the government since, all Chinese football clubs are more or less funded by the national sport. They are unable to separate from the government mainly because of the Chinese special political system. Significant Change in CFA From 2004, the National sport funding have quit from all football club. A new independent organization was then established in 2004, the Chinese Super League (CSL) Company wherein it comprised of 16 Chinese Football Clubs and CFA shareholders. To promote high quality as well as high level of competition, to introduce the advanced managerial concepts to the market, to enforce delivery of minimum standards of professionalism, to encourage the influx of more higher quality foreign coaches as well as players, and to gradually establish European system for player registrations and transfers are the goal of CSL (‘Football in China,’ 2008). The CSL Company The authority of CSL Company as well as the football association is clearly defined and all the business affairs of the football league are managed by the company. The competition and cooperation between the professional clubs are protected. In addition to that, to prevent the conspiracy of the club owners’ members of the football association they are involve in the decision making. Impact on Chinese Professional Football Clubs The clubs’ gaming strengths are enhanced. It makes the supervision of the owner to become possible. It changes the nature of it agency commission which resulted high efficient management performance. Highly efficient as well as professional public service for professional football clubs is provided. In addition to that, it can solve effectively the clubs’ problems of high cost. ‘After re-launching the CSL, it developed significant change in terms of football sport in China. A lot has been achieved after the 3-year partnership with Infront. Like for instance, new sponsors have been recruited and there is an observable increase in television coverage. The Infront has installed its Space & Time computer controlled rotating advertising in 14 of the 15 clubs. During the re-launch of CSL, Infront had delivered more than 1008 modules in just 12 weeks which is equivalent to 43 km. of advertising, which added commercial appeal of sponsorship of the league (‘Chinese Super League 2006 Season,’ 2008). ‘According to one of the Presidents of China Football Management Center named Xie Yalong, the contribution of Infront to Chinese Football Super League is highly appreciated by the president as well as by the management. In fact, they wanted to seek other opportunities in order to extend the partnership with the experienced team and in addition to that, they wanted also to bring Chinese football to a new professional level’ (Chinese Super League, 2008). Changes in Organization In an organization such as in sport, just like the McKinsey 7s Framework, as illustrated below, any change in skills, change in values of each members, change in strategies and change in structure of the organization, change of the system or staff or the style of management in an organization, all affects the whole organization. If not properly coordinated the whole organization will not function well and succeed. McKinsey 7s Framework References: ‘China’s Corrupt Football,’ 2008. The Economist, The Economist Newspaper Limited, 5 October 2006. ‘China Football Association,’ 2008, The Economist, The economist Newspaper Limited ‘Chinese Football Association,’ 2003, P.R. China: Ministry of Culture, 17 April 2008. ‘Chinese Super League,’ 2008, Infront: Sports and Media, downloaded 20 April, http://www.infrontsports.com. ‘Chinese Super League 2006 Season,’ 2008, Infront: Sports and Media, downloaded 20 April, http://www.infrontsports.com. ‘Chinese Walkout over Referee Bribes Averted,’ 2005, CNN Sports Illustrated, last updated 1 November 2004, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/soccer/11/01/china.walkout/. ‘Corruption could Kill Football in China – AFC,’ 2005, updated 19 June. Chinadaily.com.cn, http:www.chinadaily.comn.cn/english/doc/2005 06/19/content_452675.htm. ‘Football Code: China, 2008, The Economist, 7 October 2006, US: High Beam Research Inc. ‘Football in China,’ 2008, Sinosoc, Downloaded 20 April, http://www.sinosoc.com/about/inChina.asp. Ruoqian, Y., 2001, ‘CFA Reiterated its Principled Stand & Attitude on “Bribe Offering & Taking,”’ 20 December. ‘Sport: Football Fixing Allegations in China,’ 1998, BBC News, 15 October, BBC Homepage, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sport/football/194360.stm. Xuequan, M., 2007, ‘Under-Fire Chinese Football to Face More Chaos,’ 8 August, Beijing, China: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/08/content_6497636.htm. Read More