Source: Oriental Sports Daily

After leading the Women’s Volleyball Team of the USA to win the silver medal in Beijing Olympics, Lang Ping has remained silent when being asked by the press about the possibility of returning to China as coach of the state volleyball team. Now, Lang Ping is back to China as coach of a volleyball club instead of the state team. What makes Guangdong Evergrande Women’s Volleyball Club so attractive?

Evergrande Club, a Newly Established Club

Anyone with good knowledge of China's volleyball knows that Guangdong Women’s Volleyball has never been able to join the Division A competition since the national volleyball league matches became professional in 1996 and it is not until the expansion of the league matches that Guangdong Team had the opportunity to realize its dream. In the 2008-2009 season, Guangdong Women’s Volleyball ranked last but one among the 16 participating volleyball teams, only better than the students' team of Wuhan Physical Culture Institute. Learning that Lang Ping has taken over Guangdong Evergrande Women’s Volleytball and thinking of the background that she led the national women’s volleyball team of the USA and Turkey Telecom Club before, people cannot help wondering whether Lang Ping is addicted to clearing up the mess.

Of course not. Evergrande Women’s Volleyball is not the previous Guangdong Team, but the first professional volleyball club in China that was registered and set up in the first half of this year by Evergrande Real Estate Group with a large investment.

Currently, professional volleyball clubs in China are established mainly in two forms: one is non-entity club sponsored by enterprises which enjoys the naming right of the club; the other form is entity club co-sponsored by the administration of sports and enterprises, i.e. the two parties co-establish the club with the enterprise providing funds and the administration of sports taking charge of tangible and intangible assets such as coaches, players and training sites.

In the non-entity form, the cooperation between the two parties is quite loose and the club does not substantially break away from the mode of professional team and does not have the structure of a club in its true sense. In the entity form, the administration of sports takes charge of training and matches while the enterprise takes charge of operation and publicity. Neither of the forms can be called professional club in its true sense. Therefore, there is no doubt that the splendid establishment of Evergrande Women’s Volleyball will inject new vitality to the current operating modes of volleyball clubs in China.

Great Wealth: Registered Capital of RMB 20 Million

It is reported that the registered capital of Evergrande Club is up to RMB20 million, which is unprecedented in China's volleyball circle where all teams are worrying about sponsored funds. The latest statistics from Cric (China) about the sales of China’s real estate companies in the first half of the year shows that the accumulative contract volume of Evergrande Real Estate in the first half of the year has reached RMB 11.2 billion, exceeding ten billion yuan together with other seven real estate companies such as Wanke and Baoli. What is worth mentioning is that Evergrande is the only unlisted real estate company whose sales volume exceeds RMB 10 billion in the first half of the year. It is also reported that Evergrande Real Estate has submitted listing application to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and is expected to be officially listed in Hong Kong in October.

In addition to significant financial support, Evergrande Club is completely run and operated in the mode of enterprises, assuming sole responsibility for its profits and losses, operating independently and developing by itself. In this new mode, Evergrande takes whole charge of the overall operation of the club, including matters concerning coaches, players and training sites. The players of its first team are directly registered at the National Volleyball Administration Center and are allowed to participate in national matches on behalf of Guangdong.

Some authorities in the sports circle said that the new mode of Evergrande Volleyball Club, closely following the development trend of the world’s volleyball, contributes a lot to the promotion of the professionalization of China’s volleyball and will positively push forward the accelerated development of China's volleyball cause.

With strong financial support, Evergrande Women’s Volleyball will begin to cast the net for best players all over the country after its establishment. Upon its set-up, the team was headed by Qiu Fengrui, the former chief coach of men and women’s volleyball teams of Hebei and there were quite a few players who had served in the national teams. Among them, Liao Tingting, former player of Sichuan Women’s Volleyball Team, was once serving in the National Team and National Youth Team, Zhou Jia and Jiang Wei, former player of Liaoning Team was once serving in the National Youth Team and Wang Tian, former player of Guangdong Women’s Volleyball Team, was once serving in the National Beach Volleyball Team. Its strength can not be underestimated.

After Lang Ping taking up the post of head coach, the team will certainly make greater efforts to bring in players from other teams and the joining of excellent players from abroad is not impossible. If Evergrande Women’s Volleyball can arouse a player transferring storm before the league matches, it will provide a welcome jolt for the market of league matches that has been silent for years.