Breaking News: ZJK boycotts China Super League!

In an interview, Zhang Jike's father told the reporter that last year, prior to the post season games, Luneng's old manager told Zhang Jike verbally that if he could help Luneng win the championship title, Luneng would give him a pay raise. Zhang Jike held his end of bargain - helping Luneng to win the championship title, but Lunenng's new manager refused to honor his predecessor's promise - gave Zhang Jike a pay raise this season. Lunenng had a management change between the season.

Considering his over decade's relationship with Luneng, Zhang Jike swallowed his pride, and still signed the new season bonus contract without pay raise at the conclusion of first round and gave Luneng for signature. Luneng, however, has adopted a wait-and-see attitude and still has not signed the contract after 9 rounds. Now, every player in Luneng has a season bonus contract except for Zhang Jike. This is just outright robbery! That's not the way to treat your old player who has given his youth and prime to the team and helped the team to win two championship titles in the last 5 years! Just because Zhang Jike's getting old and is physically spent does not give the team a right to drain the last drop of his blood and then get rid of him as soon as he loses value. I understand maybe Luneng wants to invest more in Fangbo who is much younger and healthier. But, a good organization should act more humanely instead of in a cold blood manner!

I have read the CTTSL rules and regulations regarding the player registration and salary and bonus, and found some holes in Director's Liu's claim that the so called "Registered Contract" signed by Luneng and Zhang Jike and filed with CTTSL Organization Committee satisfies the player registration procedures.

According to 2012 Chinese Super League Player Registration and Exchange Implementation Polices http://www.sport.gov.cn/n16/n2070101/n2070117/3765885.html

1. The Club has to register its Super League players between the end of the previous season and three months prior to the start of the new season.
2. Player (or guardian) must have signed a labor contract with the Club in order to be registered
3. A player's seasonal pay shall be the total of three parts, i.e. total pay = base salary + performance salary + season bonus
4. The details regarding season bonus must be included in the labor contract with the player
5. The paying method such as the time and amount of pay has to be included in the labor contract between the player and the Club

A review of the signed contract between Zhang Jike and Luneng filed with CTTSL Organization Committed disclosed to the public by Director Liu shows that:

1. the contract did not contain details regarding season bonus
2. the contract did not contain details regarding payment method such as the time and amount of pay

As such, the contract cannot be considered the labor contract required for player registration at the time of registration which happened three months prior to the start of 2015 season (May 23), i.e. around Feb. 23. Since Luneng did not have the required labor contract with Zhang Jike at time of player registration (it still has not signed the season bonus contract as of today), Zhang Jike cannot be considered a registered player for Luneng for 2015 season; therefore, Luneng cannot ask him to play for the club until it signs the season bonus contract.

Killerspintt said:

It also shows that his injury must be very severe.......

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He's fine now. Luneng just wants to safeguard itself.

Michal_Z said:

2 things.
1st - thosa are rules of 2012, that could be changed already.
2nd - in some other post of yours, you said Zhang has contract for Luneng for 4 years.
So this is now really confusing..

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1. This rule is still in effect even though published in 2012
2. The rule requires the club and the player to have a four year general contract in order to register the player for the first time in 2012
3. The four year contract basically says that the club and the player agree to the basic salary and performance bonus required by the Organizational Committee for season 2012 - 2014
4. During the four year contracted period, the player can change club under certain circumstances. The new club must pay required fees to the old club.
5. The club is required to re-register a player with a season addendum containing provisions on base salary, performance bonus, and season bonus before the start of each season because there maybe some changes to the four year general contract. For example,
(1) a player's class may have changed from lower to higher or higher to lower class, resulting in the change in basic salary and performance bonus for the new season. Good example, Fan Zhendong was only a First Class in 2014, and he is now a Super Class in 2015
(2) a player may change club
(3) season bonus differs from season to season

According to the rule, in order to re-register a player, the club has to have a signed contract regarding season bonus for that season. Based on what transpired in the news, the club and Zhang Jike did negotiate a season bonus contract prior to the season starts which Zhang Jike signed at end of first round. Since he has been with Luneng for more than 10 years, he trusted that Luneng would sign too, it's just a matter of time. That's why although the club had not signed the season bonus contract Zhang Jike still played for the club in the first 5 rounds. However, when after 8 rounds the club still had not signed the contract and said they won't sign the contract unless Zhang Jike plays well, that's when Zhang Jike realized that the club did not want to sign the contract in its originally agreed terms. That's why he refused to show up for the 9th round. The club's spokesperson said that now the club would sign the season bonus contract only if Zhang Jike performs well and under certain conditions.

Conclusions:

1. Zhang Jike and Luneng negotiated a season bonus contract before the start of season
2. Zhang Jike and Luneng are supposed to sign the season bonus contract before the start of the season and before season re-registration
3. Organization Committee should not let Luneng re-register Zhang Jike without a copy of signed season bonus contract on file

Zhang Jike is not blameless in this incident. He should not have signed the season's Addendum which only contains provisions on basic salary and performance bonus to the four year contract without a signed season bonus contract. Because of his long time relationship with Luneng, and also because maybe that's how it was done in the previous seasons, he believed that Luneng would sign the agreed season contract eventually. I guess this year an accident changed the way it was done before. The season bonus contract was agreed upon before Feb. 23 when Zhank Jike was well and sound. Then, he got injured in Suzhou WTTC in early May, which cast doubts in Luneng on whether he could play at all or if he could play to their expectations in this season which was scheduled to start in late May. That's why Luneng wanted to wait and see.

This incident teaches Zhang Jike as well as other players a lesson:

Do not sign the season addendum which only contains provisions on basic salary and performance bonus to the four year general contract without a signed copy of season bonus contract.

It also teaches the Organization Committee a lesson:

Do not re-register a player without a signed copy of season bonus contract.

Somebody might say, well, Zhang Jike is at least guaranteed the base salary and performance bonus. It's not like he's playing for free.

We are talking about just and fair and legality here.

1. The rule says a player's season pay shall include base salary, performance bonus, and season bonus. Zhang Jike is entitled to season bonus. Luneng cannot ask Zhank Jike to play without season bonus and only for base salary and performance bonus.
2. Everyone else in Luneng has a season bonus contract.

Somebody might also say, well, maybe Zhang Jike is demanding too much and Luneng does not think he is worth that much. If that's the case, then the club should not have agreed to a season bonus contract before the season starts and refused to honor it when season progresses. If the club does not want to give Zhang Jike the season bonus, the club should tell him before the season re-registration so that he could change club. Now, Zhang Jike is considered a registered player for Luneng, and he could only play for Luneng this season. He cannot change club after season re-registration nor during the season. Basically, he's stuck with Luneng. With no deadline set by Organization Committee and no penalty imposed on Luneng if it fails to sign, Luneng literally could drag this thing to the end of the season without any consequences.

Michal_Z said:

So in fact, Zhang did the mistake with trusting the club he shouldnt

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You are right!

No matter the outcome of this contract dispute, I think both Chinese TT players as a group and CTTSL as a tournament would benefit from this incident:

1. It would raise the players awareness of protecting their rights when dealing with the clubs. For example, do not sign a season addendum that does not include all provisions on base salary, performance bonus, and season bonus
2. It would prompt the CTTSL Organization Committee to improve its season re-registration administration. For example, do not re-register a player unless there's a season addendum containing all provisions on base salary, performance bonus, and season bonus

I want to stress that during the whole contract dispute, Zhang Jike has acted appropriately. He has not bad mouthed Luneng even once. He only stated the facts and his point of view. During his interview with CCTV reporter, he only said that Luneng had not signed the season bonus contract, and that's why he refused to play anymore. In his Weibo, he urged his fans to take a neutral stand on the dispute. He said he's only acting to protect his own right and interest. Besides, a contract is a mutual agreement protecting the rights and interests of both parties, said he.

Zhang Jike's weibo commenting on the contract dispute has close to 4500 comments, 2991 reposts, and 8189 likes:



He also posted on his Facebook account regarding the incident:



Please visit his Facebook page to voice your opinion and show your support if you agree with him:
https://www.facebook.com/ZhangJikeOfficial/posts/1089410241087076