In the days leading up to the start of the A-level playoffs in China's women's volleyball league, Shanghai Women's Volleyball Team faced an unfortunate turn of events. Their top scorer, Xiaocaiwa, suddenly announced through her agency that she was terminating her contract with the Shanghai team due to alleged misconduct by the club. She has since hurriedly made her way to Istanbul, Turkey, returning to her former club, Fenerbahçe. This left the Shanghai team in a difficult position, not only losing their primary scorer but also being accused of not fulfilling their contractual obligations, thus becoming the scapegoat. Naturally, Shanghai fans were outraged and eagerly awaited an explanation from the team. However, it seems that the Shanghai team has decided to accept defeat silently, swallowing this bitter pill, as they released a lukewarm statement today.
The statement from Shanghai Women's Volleyball Team declared that the team had engaged in no misconduct and that Xiaocaiwa's departure was a personal decision, expressing regret and respect for her choice. They also mentioned maintaining communication with Xiaocaiwa and her agency in the future, hoping for a satisfactory resolution. However, this final remark is entirely pointless; no amount of communication can bring her back, and the earlier statements are laughably inadequate.
The situation is straightforward: Xiaocaiwa wanted to leave, and her agency concocted an excuse to terminate the contract without paying a breach of contract fee. The core issue, however, lies with the Shanghai team. Why could someone easily find a reason to terminate the contract? It's even more absurd that the Shanghai team claims no misconduct on their part. If there was none, why didn't they sue the other party for breach of contract? Xiaocaiwa's actions constitute a breach of contract, yet the Shanghai team went so far as to say they respected her personal choice. Are you respecting a breach of contract?
Ultimately, our women's volleyball league and these clubs are simply not professional enough, allowing others to exploit loopholes. Now, they lack the ability to respond effectively and can only suffer in silence, swallowing the bitter fruit of failure. In the end, Xiaocaiwa breached her contract without any cost and left as a free agent. The Shanghai team and the Chinese women's volleyball league are the biggest losers.
This issue is not unique to the Shanghai team; other clubs would likely face similar consequences if such an event occurred. Last season's Valgas serves as the best example. Our so-called professional women's volleyball league is not truly professional except for Shenzhen's team; all others are controlled by sports bureaus. Officials from these bureaus do not understand commercial operations or how to negotiate contracts. In the past, within China, officials from sports bureaus acted like the dominant party, above reproach, not needing to adhere to the spirit of contract. Who dared to go against the will of local sports bureaus? However, foreign players don't care about this; Chinese local sports bureaus may be powerful in China, but internationally, they mean nothing, and everything is handled according to the contract.
This incident demonstrates that our sports bureau managers fundamentally do not understand what a contract is or what contract spirit means. As a result, they were outmaneuvered and could only swallow the bitter fruit of their own power.