So, Wu Hao can now fully anticipate that once his acquisition of the club and his substantial investment are announced, it will be surprising if the media doesn’t swarm to cover it. Even media outlets in Asia and internationally will be influenced.

Wu Hao aims to create a phenomenon-level club, and the club’s positioning will undoubtedly be a ‘top-tier’ one in China, Asia, and even the world.

After all, if he wants to impact the development of domestic football through this phenomenon-level club, then extensive media hype and social commentary are essential.

For example, the reason European football clubs are considered top-tier is not only because of their historical background but also because they are widely recognized.

This recognition means that even people who don’t understand football should know about them. For instance, if you randomly ask someone on the street if they know Manchester United or Real Madrid, it’s likely that almost everyone has heard of these names.

Conversely, if you ask them about other top European football clubs, besides those who are knowledgeable about football, others might not know at all.

Therefore, in a sense, these well-known top-tier clubs are phenomenon-level clubs.

…

On the other hand, after Liu Ben and Hong Lei discussed their plans for a football club with Wu Hao, Liu Ben began to handle the matter with great enthusiasm. That same day, after Wu Hao’s discussion with the smart brain, he also figured out how to develop the football club, so he gave Liu Ben a simple plan.

Firstly, the club must be an entirely independent company. Once the club’s name is decided, it cannot be changed in the future, even if the club is transferred to someone else.

For example, European clubs have kept their names for over a hundred years. Even if the club changes hands multiple times, the original name remains unchanged.

Take the Premier League club Chelsea from over a decade ago as an example. Even after being forcefully acquired by Russian oligarch Abramovich with substantial investment, the club’s name did not change. This is one of the most famous acquisition cases in recent years. In European football clubs, despite frequent changes in ownership, the club’s historical heritage and name remain the same.

This is because even if they wanted to change the name, local fans would not agree. European fans have significant influence, and if any club owner does something that harms their club or the team performs poorly, it’s quite common for fans to protest by smashing windows at the owner’s home.

However, in our country, the situation is quite the opposite. Generally, whenever a local club changes ownership, the club’s name changes accordingly, reflecting the name of the group company behind it.

This is purely a form of advertising for the group company. For instance, clubs like Evergrande, Shanghai SIPG, and Beijing Guoan all change names with each new owner.

Frequent name changes are quite detrimental to a club’s development because it impacts the club’s historical growth and heritage. Of course, discussing heritage for our country’s clubs might be premature at this stage.

After all, how many years have our clubs been developing? Professional football only started in 1994, whereas European clubs have histories of over a hundred years.

Moreover, changing the club’s name with every new owner leaves many non-specialist fans confused about the club’s actual name.

Nevertheless, this situation reflects our country’s characteristics and conditions. The reason group companies invest in football clubs is not only due to a passion for the sport but also to advertise their group companies.

The company that achieved the greatest success in this area early on was Wanda Group’s Wang Jianlin. After his company developed, he transferred the club and seemingly restarted his football endeavors.

In summary, for our country’s group companies behind these clubs, the enthusiasm for football is 80% for their own company’s benefit and 20% for personal reputation and interest.

After all, determining if someone is a real billionaire or a fake one now hinges on whether they own a football club!

What Wu Hao aims to do now is create a club with fully independent funding and a name that cannot be changed, no matter how many times the club is transferred in the future.

These conditions will be agreed upon and contracted with the local government and sports bureau at the inception of the club because this is crucial for the club’s future development. Otherwise, constant name changes will make it unclear who is who after several twists and turns.

After receiving Wu Hao’s development plan, Liu Ben strongly agreed. He was familiar with the European club management model, so in the following days, Liu Ben began to make arrangements.

As for the location of the club, considering future development and various factors, it was decided to place the club in the provincial capital, Rongcheng.

Wu Hao and Liu Ben’s city only has a population of slightly over one million in the urban area, which is not sufficient to support the development of a football club in today’s football market in our country.

Even if there was a football club, it would likely get little attention. However, the provincial capital is different. Currently, there are no professional teams in the entire provincial capital, and setting up there would surely attract support and favorable policies from the government.

Additionally, the provincial capital has one of the few professional football stadiums left in the country and boasts considerable fan resources. Rongcheng was once one of the hottest football cities in the country, definitely in the top ten nationwide.

Moreover, Rongcheng is also a super-large city with a population of nearly 15 million in the urban area, only slightly behind Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai’s neighboring city, Shuangqing, which ranks fourth in the country.

Shuangqing, after recent urban reorganization, has a population far exceeding Beijing and Shanghai by several million, reaching 28 million and occupying most of the direct-controlled municipality.

Beijing and Shanghai rank second and third with populations of 23 million and 19 million, respectively. However, Shuangqing’s massive urban population includes a substantial number of people added from nearby county-level cities.