Chairman Wang Jianlin spoke on the signing ceremony

José Antonio Camacho as the head coach to the Chinese national football team

The signing ceremony for the new head coach to the Chinese national football team cum the press conference were held in Beijing Sofitel Wanda Hotel on August 14th. The well-known Spanish football coach José Antonio Camacho was appointed as the head coach for the Chinese national football team for the next three years, and lead the team to play in several worldwide matches. Cai Zhenhua, Deputy Director of State General Administration of Sports, and Chairman Wang Jianlin attended the signing ceremony; Wei Di, Deputy Chairman and Secretary-General of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) signed the contract on behalf of the CFA with Camacho.

On the ceremony, Chairman Wang Jianlin gave a spontaneous speech. He noted, (1) It was the CFA’s decision to hire Camacho as the head coach to the Chinese national football team; (2) Camacho is a world-class coach given his experience as the head coach to the Spain national football team, six terms of head coach to La Liga teams, and the rank of No.26 on the world coach list; (3) We should refrain from judging a coach with the short term performance. If we take the result of one world-cup qualification match as the criterion to assess the ability of a coach, we will never be able to find a good one; (4) Chairman Wang calls for all the genuine Chinese football fans to support Camacho and the Chinese national football team.

It’s a key component in Wanda’s football promotion program to hire world-class coaches as the head coach to the Chinese national football team. Wanda Group has entered a strategic partnership agreement with the CFA a month ago; with the joint effort and teamwork from both parties, the work is in good progress as planned. That Camacho assumes the role as the head coach to the Chinese national football team has marked a major achievement in the strategic partnership between Wanda and the CFA.