解雇主教练是一种经济省钱的危机公关手段,职业足球环境下绝对如此。
因为当一支球队成绩一塌糊涂的时候,作为管理者,无法解雇一支球队、无法解雇一代球员,于是解雇一名主教练,既能平息民怒,又能转移视线,还能节约人力资源投入成本,不论从管理学角度,还是经济学角度,这都是最容易的解决方案。
哪怕这未必是最正确的解决方案。
卡马乔必然要对1比5输给泰国青年队负责,他还需要对客场0比8被巴西队娱乐负责。和泰国的比赛进行当中,现场就有了排山倒海的”下课”声,央视的解说和评论,各种社交媒体上的鼓噪,包括你和我的及时反应,都觉得换帅已经势在必行了。解雇卡马乔是必须要做的,只是仅仅解雇卡马乔并不够。这一场羞辱的真相,我们需要全面的掌握,不从这样的废墟里寻找到案情原委,未来类似的羞辱还会发生,会让我们习惯于让中国足球彻底沉沦入亚洲三四流境地。
解雇卡马乔,唯一的障碍,恐怕就是他税后260万欧元的年薪,当然还包括他助理教练团队的高薪。这样一份愚蠢的合同,韦迪被调离足管中心就可以不管不顾,可当时足管中心领导们买下的种子,如今开出了越来越丑陋和恶臭的花朵。卡马乔不会主动请辞,包括中泰之战后,他仍然坚持,是否解雇他,那是中国足协的决定——解雇他也很容易,按照合同赔偿他薪金就好了。
欧洲人的思维会很简单直接:既然成绩上已经颜面无存,那么经济利益上就不能再吃亏,一切必须依照合同规则来,合同在最早签订的时候,已经有了很多保护卡马乔的地方,本来这样的合同还会有双方更多的斡旋讨论空间,但是在2011年夏秋,中国足协急于解雇高洪波任命”国际名帅”,又有大连万达的赞助资金支撑,签下卡马乔,在世界杯预选赛小组赛阶段,以高薪为饵,让”国际名帅”代足协受骂,这也是危机公关的手段之一。
不过卡马乔的履历和能力,足够称得起中国国家队这样的职位,只是他根本没有主动适应这个新环境,中国足球也没有给卡马乔顺利融入提供足够条件。他变成了一个高薪替罪羊,不过有了在全球足球教练里能排进前十的高薪,这样的骂名和没面子,任谁都会认了。
解雇卡马乔,足协转移视线,还会有些壮士断腕的豪气,虽然赔光这好不容易利用高层政治授意得来的赞助费,让足协显得很愚蠢,但总比天天被球迷指着骂好。卡马乔会是一个半推半就的替罪羊,但他是中泰之战、中巴之战这些耻辱纪录的最大原因吗?
有传闻说中泰之战有地下博彩势力的介入,官方没有说法;国脚们和泰国交手时,哪怕真是技不如人,但那样的混乱和失控,和”做掉卡马乔”有多大关系,官方必须有调查;中超俱乐部豪气干云,但到底给国家队多少支持,还是国家队被中超金主所绑架了,官方不能回避。
卡马乔哪怕下课,不会是也不应该是最倒霉的那一个。中国足球带给全社会的受辱,需要有人承担责任。
Sack Camacho or sack football in China
Football has become a major issue in China, again, for all kinds of reasons.
We need to backtrack to the beginning of June. When President Xi Jinping was making his speech in the Mexican National Congress, he said: “I am a football supporter, China football has been trying very hard for a long time. Mr. Bora Milutinovic led the China National Team to the final of World Cup 2002, he was also the former head coach of the Mexican National Team…”
You could smell it that football would encounter a brilliant political environment in China.
But football is China’s most unlucky sport. Less than two weeks after the President’s personal endorsement, Team China played a series of international friendly at home, though in different cities in China. They lost the first match against Uzbekistan at Inner Mongolia, were defeated by a sincere but lenient Netherlands team at the Worker’s Stadium in Beijing, then travelled to Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province, on June 15, for the last friendly against a Thai team which was mainly formed of under 23 players.
The last match turned out to the national team’s biggest disaster in history: the Thailand U23 team easily dismantled a lackluster Team China by the score of 5:1, slaughter might be another way of descrining that match.
INSULT, NATIONAL DISORDER, HUMILIATION, etc. These were the headlines across the nation’s media. The match was broadcast live by CCTV5, the sports channel of CCTV, therefore making Team China’s sloppy and dispirited performance impossible to hide from the national audience. Till the end of the match, you could hear clearly through TV the roaring chants from the half empty stadium: Sack the Coach! Sack the Coach!
The current head coach of Team China is the Spanish José Antonio Camacho Alfaro, who made his name with the sweated armpits during World Cup 2002. Not sure if President Xi still remembered the former head coach of Spain.
Sack the coach has always been the most economic way of diverting the public attention when your team is in deep trouble, as it is more difficult to sack a whole team, or in China’s case, sack a whole generation of footballers.
It is economic, it is also very costly, because Camacho still has a two year contract. CFA have either to pay him and his coaching team off about €7 million, or just stick to the contract and bear with an extremely angry outside world. It is up to CFA, or CFA’s higher authority, the National Sport Administration, to make the decision.
If Camacho’s aloofness and arrogance have contributed to the failures of Team China for the past two years, sack him would be an easy solution, but football is a sport much more complicated than that.
For the Thailand match itself, three big questions are still hanging in the air:
– Are the international players really playing to lose the match in order to get rid of the Spanish head coach? So many rumors before and during the match lead us to this question.
– Is this a fixed game? It is so easy to spot so many fixed games in China Super League for the past 15 years. Sports betting is still illegal in China, even though underground football gambling has become a huge industry with billions of cash flowing around.
– Is it true that some clubs called up their international players, telling them to “take it easy” with the national team playing in this meaningless friendly? Evidence has appeared in some media reports that this claim could be true.
On June 19, the National Sport Administration called a technical meeting to analyze the match. Another investigation meeting was scheduled on June 27, for ‘Serious Investigation’, whether the meeting is about those above mentioned three questions, nobody knows.
12 days after the disaster, it would be easy for all evidenced being eradicated.
John Yan is Deputy Editor of Netease.com